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Rkobivbd  in  EsciiAMas 

Flint  Publio  Library 


.  ',  ^  *^ 


i 


TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY: 


THB  RESULT  OP 

JOUBNEYS  MADE  m  1847  AND  1848  TO  EXAMINE  INTO 
THE  STATE  OF  THAT  COUNTRY. 


BY   CHARLES  MAC  FARLANE,  ESQ., 

AUTHOR  OF 

'  CONSTANTINOPLE  IN  1828.' 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES.  — VOL.   II. 


» -  » 


LONDON: 
JOHN    MURRAY,   ALBEMARLE    STREET. 

1850. 


•    « 


•  •  •  •    - 


PURTBD  BY  W.  CU>WX$  AHD  80N8.  8TAMF0BD  aTREBT. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL  IL 


CHAPTEB  XVI. 

Bnua  —  ICore  Turkish  OppresBiou  —  Yorvaoki,  the  Oieek,  put  to  the 
Torture  —  Bevieit  ike  Pa^ba  of  Brusa  —  Spodmen  of  a  Turkifih 
Stajapfflman  aad  Administrator  —  Deroured  for  Backshish  —  Denial  of 
Justiee  —  False  Witnesses,  &c.  —  Case  of  the  Son  of  Berafinq,  an  inno- 
omt  Youth  condnnned  for  a  Mnrder — Venality  through  all  its  stages  — 
A  £Air  Spedmen  of  Griminal  Law  in  Turkey  —  A  Turkish  Saint  and  his 
History  —  Armenian  Usury  —  Value,  in  Turkey,  of  Municipal  Institu- 
tions, Provincial  Councils,  &c.  —  The  Brusa  Council,  its  composition  and 
operation  —  System  of  Bribeiy  —  The  Armenians  appoint  the  Pashas 
— Opinions  of  an  old  English  Resident — Uniyersality  of  Corrapti<Hi  — 
Schools  at  Brusa —- The  best  Educaticm  is  that  of  the  Greeks — No  Turkish 
School  —  Ruin  of  the  Turkish  Colleges  or  MedxeBsehs  —  Massacre  of  the 
Nestorian  Christians  —  Mussulman  Fanaticism  —  Population  of  Brusa 
—  Visil;  to  the  trepanned  Emir  Beshir,  or  Chief  of  the  Druses  —  His 
complaints  of  bad  Mth  in  English  Consular  Ag^ts,  &o.  —  The  Emir's 
Household  at  Brusa  —  Religion  of  the  Druses Page  1 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


Hadji  Halvat  —  A  Scene  by  the  ruined  Khan  —  Beautiful  Weai^ier  in 

December  —  Wolves  and  Jackals  —  Turkish  Resignation  —  Winter 

Kights  —  Journey  to  Moudania  —  State  of  the  Roads  —  Deceptions 

practised  upon  tbe  Sultan  —  Missopolis  —  Signer  Gall^  —  No  Law,  no 

Justice  —  False  Witnesses  —  The  Tamdmaut  —  Foreign  Protection  to 

Rayidis  —  A  Rusdanized  Armenian  —  Town  of  Moudania — Destruction 

»  of  Fruit-trees,  &c.  —  Taxes  and  cramped  Trade  —  Trade  —  A  Melan- 

'  cboly  Frenchman  —  Town  of  Psyche  —  Miraculous  Church  —  Insanity 

cured  —  Sale  of  Tapers  —  Ignorance  and  Venality  of  the  Greek  and 

{  Armenian  Clergy  —  Growth  of  Infidelity  —  Farming  the  Revenue  — 

Effects  of  this  system  —  Armenian  Usury  —  Ruins  of  the  ancient 

Apamca 72 

a  2 


>> 


vr  CONTENTS  OP  VOL.  IL 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Journey  back  to  Constantinople  —  Kelessen  —  Yorvacki  and  Family  — 
Demirdesh  —  A  Greek  assassinated  by  mistake :  bis  Widow  —  Greek 
Marriage  Festivals  —  The  Greek  Lay-Primates  —  Oppressive  Taxation 

—  Forced  Labour  —  Arbitrary  Fines  —  Crushing  weight  of  Interest  — 
Story  of  the  Greek  Bishop  at  Brusa  —  Decay  of  religious  Belief  and  of 
Respect  for  the  Greek  Clergy — Church  and  School  of  Demirdesh — More 
about  Weddings  —  Greek  Gallantry  —  Ghemlik,  or  Ghio  —  Kir-Yani : 
his  House  and  Lion  and  Unicom  —  Mr.  Longworth  —  Tuzlar  and  the 
English  Farm  —  Agricultural  Remarks  —  Vindictive  Bulgarians  — 
Leave-takings  —  Kir-Yani  and  his  sad  end  —  Turkish  Steamer  — 
Delays  —  A  Turkish  Colonel  —  A  Dervish  —  Hadji  Cosl^  &c.  &c. 

Page  97 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Constantinople  —  Turkish  Ministers  and  Reformers  —  Difficulty  in  seeing 
them  —  Backshish  —  Dishonesty  of  the  Turks  in  the  Capital  —  Vast 
number  of  Servants  kept  by  Pashas  —  Vice  and  Crime  —  Visit  to  Ali 
Pasha,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  —  Mustapha-Nouree  Pasha  — 
Reschid  Pasha,  the  Grand  Vizier  —  Lack  of  Hospitality  —  Turkish 
Diplomatic  Dinners  —  In-door  Life  of  the  great  Turks  —  Buffoons  and 
Dervishes  —  Sarim  Pasha,  Finance  Minister  —  The  House  of  a  Turkish 
Effendi  —  Aversion  to  the  Society  of  Europeans  —  Emin  Pasha,  and  a 
Combat  with  Dogs  —  Prostrations  of  an  Annenian  SerafiT  —  Turkish 
Correspondence  —  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha,  Grand  Master  of  the  Artillery 

—  A  Red  Indian  wanted  —  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  and  Anecdote  of  him 

—  Marriages  of  Sultanas  settled  by  the  Annenians  —  Political  Economy 

—  Indolence  of  Men  in  Office  —  A  Plan  for  improving  Agriculture  and 
reducing  the  Rate  of  Interest  —  The  System  of  the  SerafiTs :  its  fatal 
consequences  —  Sultan  Mahmoud's  Execution  of  four  of  the  Dooz-Oglous 
in  one  morning .    • «    186 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Constantinople  —  Winter  at  Pera  —  Fires !  —  Streets  of  Pera  and  Galata 

—  Lady  Mary  Wcfrtley  Montagu  —  Terrible  Climate  —  Christmas  and 
New  Year  —  An  Eflfendi  —  Another  Fire !  —  Pera  Noises  —  Poisoning 
Dogs  —  Emeutes  de  Femmes  —  Dearth  of  Fuel  —  lighting  for  Char- 
coal —  More  effects  of  the  Maximum  —  Scarcity  of  Provisions  —  Sour 
Bread  —  Dr.  Millengen  made  Baker  to  the  Sultana  Valid€  —  The 
Cholera  and  its  ravages  —  Board  of  Health  —  Journey  to  San  Stefano 

—  Dr.  Davis  —  Comparing  Notes  —  The  Greek  Epiphany  —  Baptizing 
the  Cross  —  Go  to  Macri-keui  —  Colony  of  English  Workmen  — 
Idleness  and  Dissipation  —  Mechanics*  Institution  at  Macri-keui* — 
Preaching  —  Building  an  Iron  Steam-boat  —  Mr.  Phillips  of  Hastings 
—  Wast^  of  Money  by  the  Armenians  —  French,  Belgian,  and  German 
Mechanics  —  Mining  —  Armenian  Generosity     ......     185 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  n. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

CoDstaniinople  —  The  Dandng  Dervishes  at  Pera  —  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid 
and  his  Comproinises  —  Rudeness  of  Turkish  Soldiers  —  The  Sultan's 
Brother,  Abdul  Haziz  —  Murders  of  the  Male  Children  of  the  Sultan's 
Sisters  —  Dreadful  Deaths  of  Mihr-ou-Mah  Sultana  and  Ateya  Sultana 

—  Achmet  Fe&i  Pasha— The. Tomb  of  Murdered  Children ^ Halil 
Pasha,  the  Father  of  these  Children  —  Births  in  the  Harem  of  four  Chil- 
dren of  Abdul  Medjid — Firing  of  Salutes  —  The  Sultan's  Mother — The 
Sultan's  Prodigality  —  Sarim  Pasha  the  Finance  Minister  —  Sir  Strat- 
ford Canning  —  Changes  in  the  Government  —  Reschid  Pasha  and 
Riza  Pasha  —  Increase  of  Immorality  —  Modem  French  literature  in 
Constantinople  —  French  Journals  —  Turkish  Ladies  —  Profligacy  and 
^gotry  —  Domestic  Life  — ^Amusements  of  great  Turkish  Ladies. 

Page  229 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Medical  School  at  Galata  Serai  —  Infidelity  and  French  Books  —  Bad 
Hospital  —  Military  Schools  —  Dervish  Pasha  —  No  Rayahs  in  the 
Army  —  Straining  at  Gnats  and  swallowing  of  Camels  —  School  for 
Engineers  —  Naval  Academy  at  the  Arsenal  —  Mr.  Sang,  Teacher  of 
Mathematics  —  Mathematical  Books  —  An  Anglo-Turkish  Euclid  — 
An  "Rngliah  Bencgade  —  Turkish  University  —  A  Medal  —  DifBctdties 
in  the  way  of  Education  —  Military  Hospitals  —  Tophana  Hospital  — 
Marine  Hospital  —  Grand  Military  Hospital  at  Scutari  —  Diseases  of 
Turkish  Soldiers  —  More  Materialism  —  Military  Hospital  at  the  Ser- 
raglio  Point  —  Turkish  Almshouses  —  New  Hospital  of  the  Sultana 
Yalid^  —  The  Et  Meidan  —  Madhouses  and  State  Prisoners  in  them 

—  Dr.  Dawson  and  Dr.  Davy  —  The  Plague  —  Turkish  Ingra- 
titude        262 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Military  Barracks  —  Grand  Artillery  Barracks  at  Pera  —  Troops  badly 
shod  —  Horse  Artillery  Exercise  —  Grand  Barracks  at  Scutari  — 
Osman  Pasha  —  Regular  Cavalry  —  Infantry  —  Slovenly  Dress  — 
The  Seraskier's  Barracks  —  Infantry  Exercise  —  Ignorance  of  Pashas  — 
European  Instructors  —  A  Review  —  Turkish  Lancers  —  Miserable 
Horses  —  Number  of  Nubian  Blacks  in  the  Army  —  Numerical  strength 
of  the  Army  —  The  Conscription  —  Mr.  William  J.  Hamilton  —  Bishop 
Southgate  —  Fatal  Effects  of  the  Conscription  —  Warlike  Demonstra- 
tions in  1849  —  Defenceless  State  of  the  Frontiers  —  Political  Blunders 

—  Project  of  a  War  against  Austria  —  The  Arsenal  —  Midaria  — 
Admiral  Sir  Baldwin  Walker  —  Ship-building — Albanian  Galley-slaveB 

—  Turkish  Bands  —  The  State  of  the  Navy  —  The  Capitan  Pasha's 
Ship,  etc.  —  War  Steamers  —  OfBcers  educated  in  England  —  Ingra- 
titude —  Colonel  Williams  and  Lieutenant  Dickson  —  American  Ship- 


vi  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  II. 

builders,  Messrs.  Eckford,  Rhodes,  «Dd  Reeves  —  Mr.  Carr,  the  Ame- 
rican Minister  —  Bad  faith  of  the  Turkish  Government  —  Mr.  Frederick 
Tvylar  —  Sir  Jasper  Atkinson  and  the  Turkish  Mint  —  The  Ordnance 

—  Casting  Iron  Guns  --<•  State  of  Turkish  Prisons  —  Hired  False-wlt- 
nfiSBSB  —  fiayvhs  and  protected  Subjects  —  Why  not  be  a  Dane  P 

Page  811 

chapter'xxiv. 

English  Hospital  at  Pera^  and  its  disgraceful  Condition  —  Sufferings  and 
Mortality  of  English  Seamen  —  Cold  Neglect  of  the  Consulate  — 
Admirable  Conduct  of  the  American  Missionaries  towards  the  English 
Sailors  —  Messrs.  Dwight,  Everett,  and  Goodell  —  The  English  Hos- 
pital and  a  Fire  —  Melancholy  Death  of  an  English  Seaman  —  Par- 
aiznony  of  our  Government  —  Plan  for  improving  the  English  Ho^ital 

—  The  Palace  building  for  the  British  Ambassador  —  Enormous 
Expenses  —  Roguery  and  Plunder  -«  Thd  Woods  and  Forests  Ar- 
chitect      362 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Sad  State  of  Agriculture  in  the  Neighbourhood  of  Constantinople  — 
Reschid  Pasha's  Model  Farm  —  Ponte  Piccolo,  or  Kutchuk  Tchekmedjeh 

—  Decaying  Population  —  Turkish  Passport  System  —  Farm  of  Khos- 
reff  Pasha  —  Greek  Village  of  Ambarli  —  M.  Fran9ois  Barreau,  the 
Manager  of  Reschid  Pasha's  Farm  —  The  treatment  he  and  his  French 
Wife  had  received  from  the  Pasha  —  The  Model  Farm  abandoned  and 
a  wilderness  —  Armenian  Roguery  and  Turkish  want  of  Faith  — 
Obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  all  Improvement  —  The  French  Catholic 
Farm,  and  the  Polish  Agricultural  Colony  in  Asia  —  Our  Journey 
thither  —  A  Pastoral  Nook  —  Sisters  of  Charity  —  The  Polish  Settle- 
ment —  A  Romance  dissipated  —  Abimdance  of  Wild  Hogs,  Deer,  and 
other  Game  —  Armenian  Farm  near  Buyuk-der6  —  Horticulture  and 
Floriculture 381 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

The  Slave-trade,  and  its  activity  —  Places  for  selling  Black  Slaves  — 
A  Bargain  —  Constant  Importation  and  Sale  of  Circassians  —  News- 
paper Advertisements  of  Slaves  on  sale  —  The  Steam-boats  of  Christian 
Powers  carry  Slaves,  white  and  black  —  The  English  imjustly  accused 

—  Fearful  Mortality  of  Black  Slaves  —  Slaves  murdered  by  Turkish 
Masters  —  Fanaticism  and  Insolence  of  Black  Slaves  —  Circassian 
Slave-dealers  at  Tophana  and  near  the  Burned  Column  —  Prices  of 
White  Slaves  —  Antiquity  of  this  Trade  —  Domestic  Institutions  of 
the  Circassians  —  Demoralizing  effect  on  the  Turks  of  this  Circassian 
Slavery  —  The  Mother  of  Sultan  Abdul  Mcdjid  a  Circassian  Slave  — 
Khosreff  Pa^ia  and  Halil  Pasha — An  Appeal  to  the  Abolitionists  .    406 


: 


CONTENTS  OP  VOL.  II.  vii 

CHAPTER  XXVn. 

Excursion  to  Nicomedia  —  Turkisb  Steam-boat  —  A  Venetian  Ren^ade  — 
Conscription  and  Parties  of  Men-catchers  '•^  Bribery  and  Comtption  — 
Slovenliness  of  Turkish  Officers  —  A  fat  Colonel  -^  Sour  IinwiniH  — 
Tomb  of  Hannibal  —  Scanty  Population  —  Decline  of  OoltiTBtloii  — 
Kara  Musal  —  An  Armenian  Renegade  —  Greek  Villages  —  Beautiful 
Scenery  — » Town  of  Nicomedia,  or  Ismitt  —  A  Rc^ue  for  a  Drogoman 
^—  M.  R.  —  Osman  Bey  the  Gforemcnr  and  bis  Munidpal  Cotmdl  — 
A  Socialist  Proclamation  from  Paris  —  Osman  Bey's  history  — -  Achmet 
Ferzy,  late  Capitan  Pasha  —  Acropolis  of  Nicomedia  —  Ruined  Walls 
and  Towers  —  Fragments  of  Clasfflcal  Antiquity  —  Greeks  ill-treated 
by  Turks  —  Quarters  in  a  Greek  House  -^  Salt-pans  -»  A  beautiful 
Plain  —  The  Imperial  Cloth  Manufactory  —  ^ckness  and  Death  of  the 
European  Workmen  —  PestOential  Atmosphere  of  the  Place  —  Anhe- 
nian  Village  of  Slombek  —  Graves  of  English  Workmen  —  A  frightfal 
Read  —  The  Gbieok  Dagh  --  The  Men-catchers  again  —  The  Lake  of 
Sabanjah  —  Causes  of  Malaria  —  Armenian  Monastery  of  Armash  — 
Adar-Bazaar  —  Night  at  a  Turkish  Denrent  —  Return  to  the  Cloth- 
Manufactory  —  Sickness,  Sorrow,  and  Waste  of  Money  —  Rats  — 
Armenian  Plunder  —  Nicomedia  and  the  Dandng  Boys  *—  Poor  Tanzi- 
maut  —  Grave  of  an  Himgarian  Exile  —  Imperial  Silk  Manufactory  at 
Heradea  —  More  Waste  of  Money  —  M.  Rividre  from  Lyons  —  French, 
Gennan,  and  Italian  Workmen  —  More  Communism  —  Tork^  eaten 
up,  and  the  Armenians  picking  its  Bones  —  More  Men-catchers  —  A 
Bokhara  Trader  —  Population  of  Nicomedia  —  Retmn  to  Constantinople 

—  Brutality  of  Armenian  Serafis Page  423 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Journey  to  Adrianople  —  Ko  Roads  —  A  Speculation  in  Diligences  — 
The  Cholera  —  A  '^byage  on  the  Propontis  —  Firs  at  Stamboul-*- 
IWn  of  Selyvria  —  Comfortable  Quarters  —  Population  —  Decline  of 
the  Turks  —  Forced  Abortions  —  Prosperity  of  Cephaloniote  Greeks  — 
Thflir  Factions  — •  The  Greek  Bishop  and  Cleigy  at  Selyvria  —  Growing 
Diaregazd  of  Religion  —  Tax-Gatherers  —  Mosques  and  old  Churches 

—  Turidsh  Destmctivendss  —  Holy  Foontains  —  Murders  and  Rob- 
beries--•  Tarkish  Justice --- Kirk-Klissia -- A  Pilgrim-ship  •-*  Travelling 
Qermaa  Tailors  -—  A  desolate  Coast  -—  Town  of  Heraclea  —  Marshes 
and  stafsnant  Waters  —  Intense  Heat^  succeeded  by  chilling  Weather  — 
Lonely  Ooast  —  Town  of  Bodostb  —  Another  English  Farm !  — -  Price 
of  Lsod  •^  AiDienian  Jeakmsy  •-->  Inland  Journey --*- Bulgarian  Thieves 

—  Mttssulmanised  GipsieB  —  Desolate  Country  —  Babii-Eskissi  — 
Beaaiifill  Bridge  —  More  Bobberies  and  Murders  —  Great  Plain  of 
ThiBce  —  Dreadful  Roads  —  Town  of  Khavsk  and  its  Ruins  —  Magni- 
nifioeat  Khan  dismantled  —  First  View  of  Adrianople  —  The  Hebrus  — 
Bulgarian  Labouxeis  —  Adrianople  and  its  Filth  —  A  Great  MoUah  — 
Fssha  of  Adrianople  and  his  Drinking  Pkurtj— '  Mr.  Edwaid  Sehnell 
and  the  Village  of  KarapAtoh .    476 


viii  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  U. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Adrianople  —  Visit  to  the  Pasha  —  His  Harem  —  Turkish  Ladies  — 
Poisonings  —  The  Turkish  Ink  Vender  and  his  Pour  Wives  —  Delhi 
Mustapha  and  his  Thirty-second  Wife  —  The  Pasha's  Prison  —  The 
Pasha's  Blaok  Executioner  — -  End  of  Papas  Lollio  the  Priest-Bobber  •— 
Frequent  Executions  —  Aduktions  of  French  Journalists  —  Bad  State 
of  the  Troops  —  Dishonesty  of  Officers  —  The  Eski  Serai  or  Old  Palace 
of  Adrianople^ —  Buins !  Buins  I  —  Surrender  of  Adrianople  to  the 
Bussians  in  1829 — Turkish  Indifference  —  Excellent  Bussian  Discipline 

—  Grand  Mosque  of  Sultan  Selim  —  More  Destruction  —  Decay  of 
Beligion  among  the  Turks  —  College  in  Buins  —  Mosque  of  Sultan 
Murad  —  More  Buins  —  Ehans  destroyed  —  Population  —  Navigation 
of  the  Hebrus  —  Turkish  Engineering  —  Engineering  Plans  of  M. 
Poirel  —  Another  English  Victim  to  Malaria  —  Toll  levied  on  the 
Biver  —  The  Bafts  on  the  Hebrus  —  M.  Blanqui  —  New  Bridge  — 
Kiosk  for  the  Sultan  —  Mulberry  Plantations  at  E^ara-Atch  —  The 
Silk  Trade  —  Vineyards  and  Good  Wine  —  State  of  Agriculture  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Hebrus  —  Decline  of  the  Turkish  Population  —  Trading 
Town  of  Kishan  —  Pleasant  Frank  Colony  at  Eara-Atch  —  Mr. 
Willshire,  our  Adrianople  Consul,  and  his  Family  —  The  Grave  of  Mr. 
John  Eerr  —  Life  at  Adrianople  in  the  Winter  Season  —  Inclement 
Climate  —  Sad  Effects  of  Frost  —  Lady  Mary  W.  Montagu  —  Bulga- 
rian Farm-Labourers  —  Turkish  Oppression  and  Insurrection  of  tihe 
Bulgarians  in  1840-1  — Frightful  Massacres  of  the  Christians  —  Mission 
of  M.  Blanqui — Antipathies  between  the  Bulgarians  and  Greeks — Ten- 
dency of  the  Bulgarians  to  a  Union  with  Bussia  or  Austria  •    •  Page  618 

CHAPTEB  XXX. 

Betum  from  Adrianople  to  Constantinople  —  vAage  of  Demir  Bf»h  — 
Charles  XU.  of  Sweden  —  Great  Heat  —  Desolate  Turkish  Villages  — 
Town  of  Demotica  —  The  Acropolis,  the  £jzil-der^  and  the  Maritza  — 
Caves  and  Subterranean  Passages  —  Prison  of  Charles  XU.  —  Tippling 
Greeks  —  The  Underground  Prison  of  Demotica  —  Bomantic  Scenery 

—  Crossing  the  Hebrus  —  Agriculture  —  Sad  Boads  —  Ouzoon-Eeupri 

—  Whipping  to  Mosque  —  Indifference  to  Beligion  —  Bobbers  —  Al- 
banian Colony  at  Criza^Zaliff —  Bulgarian  Thieves  —  No  Guardhouses 

—  Imaum  Bazaar  —  More  Desolation  —  Bulgarian  Shepherds  —  Babk- 
Eskissl  —  Town  of  Bourgaz  —  C^rcumdsion  Festival  —  The  Governor 
of  Bourgaz  —  Population  of  Bourgaz  —  Buins  of  Ehans,  Baths,  &c.  -* 
Another  Wilderness  —  A  Tumulus  —  Albanian  Caravan  —  Village  of 
Eharisteran  •—  Ehan  of  Erghen^  ^  The  wild  Desert  of  Tchorlti  -- 
Murder  of  Mr.  Wood  —  Civil  War  —  Gipsy  Encampment  —  Town  of 
Tchorlii  —  Poverty  of  the  Turks  —  Cherry-trees  —  Vineyards  and 
good  Wine  *^  Buinous  Bestrictions  on  Trade  —  More  Buins  and  more 
Deserts  —  The  Propontis  —  Einikli  —  Concert  of  Frogs  —  Farm  of 
Arif  Bey —  Fine  Corn-fields  —  Bulgarian  Labourers  —  A  Guardhouse 


^  J»  ■• 


CONTENTS  OP  VOL.  U.  ix 

—  A  Fakir  from  Hindostan  —  Reach  Selyvrift  —  Temperance  Beaction 

—  Sarim  IHiaha,  the  sober  Vizier  —  Case  of  Sotiri  Maeri  —  Discou- 
ragement of  Agricultural  Improvement  —  A  Tumulus  —  Village  of 
Pivadea  —  Lower  Empire  Tower  —  A  German  Pedestrian  —  Bourgas 
on  the  Sands  ~  Ealicrati  —  Buyuk  Tchekmedjeh,  or  Fente  Grande  — 
More  Turkish  Besolation  and  Ruins  —  A  dangerous  Pass  —  Reschid 
Pasha's  New  Ehan  —  Lancers  of  the  Imperial  Guard  on  the  march  — 
Kutchuk  Tchekmedjeh  —  Arrive  at  San  Stefiano     .....  Page  560 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

San  Stefano  —  Macri-Eeui»  and  Zeitoun-Boum^  —  Hohsnnes  Dadian  — - 
More  Importations  of  European  Mediasoics  —  The  Imperial  Manufac- 
toriea  —  Horrible  Mismanagement  —  New  Arrangements  —  Worka 
stopped  for  Want  of  Money  —  Sad  State  of  the  English  Working- 
People  —  Four  Englishmen  drowned  —  The  Grande  Fabrique  at 
Zeitoun-Bbumifc  —  Fall  of  a  Tower  —  No  Water  —  Ecole  des  Arts  et 
Metiers  —  Destruction  of  English  Machinery  —  The  Imperial  Manu- 
factoriea  by  Moonlight  —  A  Cast-Iren  Fountain  for  the  Sultan  — 
Mining  Operations  —  Coal  —  Copper  —  Silver  —  Denial  of  Justice  to 
"RngHah  Workmen  —  The  Iron  Steamboat  —  Calico  and  Print  Works  — 
Manufiebctory  of  Fezases  —  Dreadful  Poverty  —  More  Waste  of  the 
Sultan's  Money  —  Another  Cloth  Factory  —  A  Leather  Factory  — 
Imperial  Porcelain  and  Glass  Manufactories  —  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha  a 
Brick  and  Tile  maker  —  The  Sultan*^  Model  Farm  finidly  ruined  by  ^ 
the  Armwians  —  Mismanagement  and  Robbery  —  The  Agricultural 
School  and  its  Students  —  Malaria  Fever  at  the  Model  Farm  —  Return 
of  Dr.  Davis  and  his  Family  to  America      . 597 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

C(m8tantinople  —  The  Fleet  —  Recruits  for  the  Army  —  State  of  Trade 

—  The  Tidjaret  Court  —  Case  of  Mr.  W K .  —  A  Judge  Elect 

at  the  Tidjaret  —  Usual  Composition  of  that  Court  —  Mr.  Langdon,  of 
Smyrna,  and  his  Emery-mine  —  Diplomatic  Blunder  —  Faithlessness 
of  the  Porte  —  Further  Proofs  of  the  Decline  of  the  Mussulman  Religion 
-—  Pilgrimage  to  Mecca  —  Insecurity  of  Property  to  Franks  —  Buyuk- 
der^  —  Gh:eat  Pera  Fire  of  June,  1848  —  The  Great  Pashas  as  Firemen 

—  No  Fire  Insurance  —  Arrival  of  Sir  S.  Canning  —  A  Bit  of  Diplo- 
matic History  —  General  Anpick,  the  Ambassador  of  the  French 
Republic  —  Political  Reflections  —  Final  Departure  from  Constantinople 

—  Smyrna  —  Home  I 640 


VOL.  n. 


■  m  t»'-<^9 


i 


fi 


TURKET  AND  ITS  DESTINY. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Bnisa  —  More  Tarldsli  oppression  —  Yorvacki,  the  Greek,  put  to  the 
torture  —  Reyisit  the  Pasha  of  Brusa  —  Specimen  of  a  Turkish 
Statesman  and  Administrator  —  Devoured  for  Backshish  —  Denial  of 
Justice  —  False  Witnesses,  &c.  —  Case  of  the  son  of  Serafino,  an  inno- 
cent youth  condemned  for  a  murder — Yenality  through  all  its  stages  — 
A  fair  Specimen  of  Criminal  Law  in  Turkey  —  A  Turkish  Saint  and  his 
History  —  Armenian  Usury  —  Value,  in  Turkey,  of  Municipal  Institu- 
tions, Provincial  Councils,  &c.  —  The  Brusa  Council,  its  composition  and 
operation  —  System  of  Bribery  —  The  Armenians  appoint  the  Pashas 

—  Opinions  of  an  old  English  resident  —  Universality  of  Corruption  — 
Schools  at  Brusa — The  best  Education  is  that  of  the  Greeks — No  Turkish 
School  —  Ruin  of  the  Turkish  Colleges  or  Medressehs  —  Massacre  of  the 
Nestorian  Christians  —  Mussulman  Fanaticism  —  Population  of  Brusa 

—  Yisit  to  the  trepanned  Emir  Beshir,  or  Chief  of  the  Druses  —  His 
complaints  of  bad  fai&  in  English  Consular  Agents,  &c.  —  The  Emir's 
Household  at  BrusK  —  Religion  of  the  Druses. 

We  returned  to  bur  far-traVelled,  much-enduring  tailor, 
Monsieur  Charles,  Nation  BelgSy  Hotel  de  Bellevue. 
The  house  was  very  airy,  not  water-tight,  and  by  no 
means  so  comfortable  a  habitation  as  it  had  been  in  the 
hot  weather.  We,  however,  remained  some  time,  as  I 
had  several  investigations  to  complete. 

The  state  of  the  Pashalik  did  not  render  me  very 
anxious  to  revisit  Mustapha  Nouree  Pasha,  but  I  heard 
that  he  had  been  making  inquiries  about  us;  and  on 

VOL,  n.  .  B 


^  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

the  attemoon  of  the  26th  of  November,  Yorvacki,  a 
Greek,  who  had  been  well  known  to  us  ever  since  our 
first  arrival  at  Brusa,  came  ito  us  with  a  tale  of  foul 
oppression  and  brutal  outrage,  and  implored  me  to  see 
the  Fasha  on  his  accoimt.  This  man  was  an  industrious 
farmer  of  the  village  of  Kelessen,  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  plain.  He  was  by  far  the  most  industrious  man 
we  had  seen  in  the  country.  I  had  frequently  employed 
him  on  little  errands  and  in  making  purchases  in  the 
tcharshy,  and  had  always  found  him  punctual  and 
honest  After  working  hard  at  the  plough  all  day, 
Yorvacki  would  walk  from  Hadji  Haivat  to  Brusa  and 
back  again,  to  carry  a  letter  or  get  anything  we  might 
'  want.  He  was  unmarried,  but  he  supported  his  old 
father  and  mother,  and  was  the  main  stay  of  two  younger 
brothers.  Four  years  ago,  the  debts  of  his  infirm  old 
father  being  thrown  upon-  him,  Yorvacki  was  owing 
26,000  piastres,  or  about  235Z.  sterling.  He  had  toiled 
night  and  day  to  pay  off  this  debt,  and  discharge  all 
taxes  and  dues  levied  upon  the  family.  In  addition  to 
his  own  small  farm  at  Kelessen,  he  hired  some  good 
land  of  John  Zohrab,  at  Hadji  Haivat,  upon  which  he 
grew  good  crops  of  wheat,  Indian  corn,  melons,  etc. ; 
paying  rent  partly  in  produce,  and  partly  in  occasional 
labour  on  John's  grounds.  Single-handed  he  had  made 
the  only  good  ditches  and  inclosures  that  were  to  be 
seen  at  Hadji  Haivat.  He  would  rise  at  midnight  to 
hold  the  plough ;  he  was  always  working ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  these  last  four  years,  besides  supporting  his 
family,  he  had  reduced  his  debt  to  4000  piastres.  Some 
of  his  brother  villagers  and  neighbours,  as  well  Greeks 
as  Turks,  became  enviov»  of  his  prosperity :  the  tchor- 


Chap.  XVI.    BRUSA— MORE  TURKISH  OPPRESSION.  3 

bajees  of  Kelessen  (three  known  rogues),  were  his 
declared  enemies,  and  joined  some  of  the  Turkish  autho- 
rities in  deciding  that  he  was  fat  and  full  and  ought  to 
be  squeezed.  This  year  he  had  paid  his  ushur,  about 
2000  piastres ;  kharatch,  for  himself  and  family,  195 
piastres ;  and  salian^  235  piastres.  But  the  tchor- 
bajees  brought  the  village  in  debt  to  the  tune  of  30,000 
piastres,  old  debt,  contracted  heaven  knows  how,  for 
the  three  old  rogues  had  no  accounts  to  show  I  Seeing 
Yorvacki  so  prosperous,  they  called  upon  him  of  a  sud- 
den to  pay  down  about  800  piastres,  to  go  towards  the 
discbarge  of  this  old  village  debt,  for  which  they  had 
been  exacting  money  for  the  \9&t  fifteen  years. 

Torvacki  said  that  the  sum  demanded  was  far  more 
than  his  fair  quota ;  and  hereupon  a  quarrel  had  ensued, 
and  he  had  been  threatened  by  the  tchorbajees  with 
tlie  vengeance  of  Khodjk-Arab,  the  head  of  the  Pasha's 
police,  and  their  ally,  protector,  and  (in  these  matters) 
partner.  Yesterday  evening  the  chief  tchorbajee,  and 
one  of  Shodjar Arab's  tufekjees,  seized  Yorvacki  in  the 
coffee-hoiuse  at  Kelessen,  and  vowed  they  would  have 
the  money  then  and  there.  Money  he  had  none :  corn 
he  had ;  but  he  could  not  sell  it  without  going  to  the 
Brusa  market,  and  it  was  night  He  promised  to  pay 
the  next  day,  and  he  pointed  to  his  com,  and  his  four 
pair  of  oxen  as  sufficient  security  for  the  payment.  No  ! 
They  would  have  the  money  that  night  He  was  an 
insolent  upstart ;  he  had  insulted  those  put  in  authority 
over  him !  And  the  tchorbajee  and  the  armed  tufek- 
jee  fell  savagely  upon  him  and  knocked  him  down* 
They  then  put  fetters  to  his  legs,  tied  a  rope  to  the 
fetters,  and  passing  the  rope  through  an  iron  ring  in  the 

b2 


[ 


*  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

ceiling  of  the  cafinet,  they  dragged  him  up  by  the  heels. 
In  this  torturing  position,  with  his  head  down,  and  all 
the  blood  of  his  body  running  towards  it,  they  kept 
him  until  he  became  insensible. 

The  deed  was  publicly  done ;  there  were  plenty  of 
Greeks  present :  but  some  of  them  had  long  nourished 
the  evil  passions  of  envy  and  jealousy,  and  the  rest  of 
them  stood  in  dread  and  awe  of  the  fierce  Khodjk-Arab, 
At  last  a  friendly  Greek  of  the  village,  named  Yorghi 
(with  whom  also  we  were  well  acquainted),  implored 
the  two  scoundrels  to  let  go  the  rope.  The  tufekjee 
bargained  to  do  so  for  a  goose.  The  goose  was  brought 
by  Yorghi ;  Yorvacki  was  released  and  restored  to  his 
senses ;  and,  the  goose  being  cooked,  the  tufekjee  and 
tchorbajee  sat  down  lovingly  together  and  ate  it  They 
were  both  drunk  before  supper,  and  no  ^doubt  got  much 
drunker  after !  Yorvacki  could  not  tell  this  story  with- 
out weeping ;  and  tears  flowing  from  the  eyes  of  a  man 
thirty  years  old,  six  feet  high,  and  robust  and  strong, 
are  not  to  be  seen  without  emotion.  Two  red  marks 
and  a  swelling  about  the  ankles  showed  where  the  fetters 
and  rope  had  been.  I  told  the  poor  fellow  that  I  would 
see  the  Pasha  that  very  night,  and  in  the  mean  time  I 
gave  him  a  little  money  and  sent  him  away  to  a  learned 
scribe,  a  native  of  Bokhara,  who  was  famed  in  Brusa  for 
drawing  up  petitions*  As  I  advised,  the  scribe  presendy 
drew  up  two  petitions,  briefly  setting  forth  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case ;  one  for  Mustapha  Nouree,  the 
Pasha  of  Brusa,  and  one  for  Reshid  Pasha,  the  Grand 
Vizier  at  Constantinople. 

As  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  our  English  consul 
had  lately  had  some  stormy  scenes  with  the  Pasha,  I 


Chap.  XVI.        REVISIT  THE  PASHA  OF  BRUSA.  5 

would  not  avail  myself  of  his  services.  I  wished  to 
appear  at  the  konack-  in  a  friendly  manner,  mider 
friendly  auspices,  and  yet  with  some  one  who,  in  acting 
as  drc^man,  would  not  be  afraid  of  literally  interpret- 
ing what  I  had  to  say.  Our  tchelebee,  who  assuredly 
would  have  had  no  fear,  was  brother-in-law  to  our  consul, 
and  so  would  not  do.  Fortunately  M.  George  Crespin, 
the  French  consul,  who  was  a  native  of  Constantinople, 
and  who  had  always  been  on  good  terms  with  Mustapha 
Nouree,  wanted  to  speak  with  him  on  an  affair  of  his  own, 
and  on  another  case  of  injustice  and  violence  which  had 
been  brought  before  him  that  very  morning  We  s^eed 
to  go  to  the  konack  that  evening,  I  engaging  to  put  my 
truths  in  the  least  offensive  form,  and  M.  C.  promising 
to  translate  whatever  I  should  say  to  him  in  French 
into  the  clearest  and  closest  Turkish  he  could  com- 
mand. 

The  great  man  received  us  very  civilly ;  said  he  was 
glad  to  see  me  back  at  Brusa ;  showed  us  an  enormous 
quantity  of  game  which  his  people  had  been  killing,  and 
gave  me  six  plump  red-legged  partridges.  I  began  the 
conversation  with  thanks  and  praises.  The  letter  he 
had  given  us  on  our  starting  for  Kutayah  had  every- 
where been  attended  to  (this  was  a  bit  of  flattery,  we 
had  only  shown  the  letter  twice ;  and,  except  at  Yeni 
Ghieul,  it  had  been  of  no  use  to  us) ;  we  had  every- 
where found  the  roads  perfectly  safe,  and  the  people  of 
the  country  honest,  civil,  and  kind ;  we  were  in  raptures 
with  the  beauty  and  natural  richness  of  the  land ;  we 
had  not  seen  fairer  regions  in  Italy  or  France,  or  Spain, 
or  in  any  other  part  of  Frankistan.  Mustapha  Nouree 
was  much  pleased,  he  clapped  his  hands  and  ordered  in  a 


6  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

fresh  supply  of  cofiee  and  tchibouques,  telling  my  worthy 
drogoman  that  I  was  a  person  of -ability  and  great  obser- 
vation, a  very  pleasant  companion,  a  friend  to  Sultan 
Abdul  Medjid,  etc.,  etc. 

But  then  I  passed  to  the  woe  and  oppression  we  had 
witnessed,  both  up  the  country,  and  down  the  country, 
and  all  in  his  own  Fashalik ;  to  the  decaying  popula- 
tion the  ruined  villages,  the  unroofed  houses,  and  the 
utter  misery  of  the  Turkish  peasantry.  This  talk 
rapidly  changed  the  cheerful  expression  of  his  counte- 
nance ;  he  seemed  uneasy  on  his  divan ;  he  eructated 
very  frequently.  And  what  was  the  great  man's  reply  ? 
As  translated  it  was  literally  this : — "  Monsieur  Mac 
Farlane,  the  people  might  be  a  good  deal  more  miserable 
than  they  arel"  I  stared  at  him  with  all  my  eyes. 
"  Dr6le  de  r6ponse  pour  un  homme  dUtat  1 "  said  Mon- 
sieur C,  who  then  took  refuge  in  a  fit  of  coughing. 

I  said  that  I  had  seen  a  good  deal  of  misery  in  my 
time  in  other  countries,  but  never  misery  like  this ;  that 
I  could  scarcely  conceive  how  the  poor  Mussulmans 
could  be  more  miserable  than  they  were,  and  live. 
After  a  little  reflection  the  Pasha  said  tibiat  it  was  all  the 
will  of  God ;  that  the  poverty  we  had  witnessed  was  all 
to  be  attributed  to  the  famine  of  1845 ;  that  destiny, 
and  not  he,  had  brought  about  that  year  of  famine ;  that 
for  his  part  he  wished  the  people  were  richer,  for  then 
it  would  be  less  difficult  to  send  the  money  the  govern- 
ment was  always  wanting  in  Constantinople.  I  spoke 
of  the  wise  and  humane  intentions  of  the  Sultan  in 
ordering  advances  of  money  to  be  made  to  those  who 
had  been  ruined  by  the  scarcity,  of  the  unfair  repartition 
which  had  been  made  of  that  money,  and  of  the  crushing 


Chap.  XVI.  A  TURKISH  STATESMAN.  7 

weight  of  interest  chained  on  it.  He  replied  testily, 
that  that  was  sefaffs^  businessy  and  no  affair  of  his ;  that 
he  got  no  profit  out  of  the  interest — which  was  false ; 
and  that  he  could  not  control  the  Armenians — which 
was  not  true.  I  did  not  read  him  lessons  in  political 
economy  and  radical  philosophy  (as  Dr.  Bowring  would 
have  done),  but  I  told  him  that  it  was  deplorable  and 
almost  incredible  to  see  so  fertile  a  country  subject  to 
visitations  of  famine ;  that  the  land,  if  cultivated,  was 
capable  of  supporting  twenty  times  its  present  popula- 
tion ;  that  the  villages  could  do  nothing  without  a  little 
capital  and  encouragement ;  that,  unless  something  was 
soon  done  for  them,  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to 
continue  paying  their  taxes;  and  that  he  might  soon 
expect  his  Fashalik  to  be  desolated  by  another  famine, 
much  worse  than  that  of  1845.  To  all  this  his  answer 
was,  that  if  it  was  their  kismet  to  have  a  famine,  why  a 
famine  they  would  have  1 

Thinking  to  please  his  ear  with  gentler  notes  I  talked 
a  little  about  the  excellent  condition  of  the  troops  up  at 
Kutayah,  bestowing  warm  and  well-merited  praise  on 
Achmet  Pasha.  But  Mustapha  Nouree  (like  every 
great  Turk  I  met)  had  no  ear  for  the  music  of  any 
praise  except  his  own ;  and  he  increased  the  frequency 
and  loudness  of  his  eructations,  and  merely  said  that  he 
had  already  heard  from  others  that  Achmet  was  a  good 
sort  of  young  man  that  knew  his  business.  I  then  told 
him  in  fiill  detail  the  story  of  the  Greek  gardener  of 
Ascia-keui.  He  said  he  could  not  believe  that  the 
Kadi  of  Billijik  had  given  the  Greek  three  hundred 
strokes.  I  asked  him  whether  such  use  of  the  bastinado 
was  not  prohibited  by  the  Sultan's  proclamation,  and  by 


8  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

the  repeated  orders  of  Reshid  Pasha  the  Vizier.  He 
replied,  that  it  certainly  was  prohibit^  in  Constanti- 
nople; that  he  himself  did  not  allow  much  of  it  at 
Brusa ;  but  that  up  the  country  the  mudirs  and  aghks 
would  have  recourse  to  it  occasionally,  which  was  natural 
and  excusable,  as  it  was  an  ancient  usage.  I  asked  him 
whether  it  was  not  as  unlawful  for  a  Mussulman  to  abuse 
the  religion  of  a  Christian,  as  for  a  Christian  to  abuse 
that  of  an  Osmanlee.  He  said  that  verily  it  was  so.  I 
then  told  him  the  story  of  the  Armenian  at  Billijik,  and 
his  Turkish  bully.  He  said  that  the  Osmanlee  must 
have  been  much  in  the  wrong,  and  that  he  would  have 
inquiries  made  into  the  whole  of  that  matter.  He  asked 
me  to  funiish  him  with  the  names  of  the  parties  con- 
cerned in  the  Billijik  affair  in  writing — ^in  Turkish,  in 
Turkish  characters — saying  that  he  knew  nobody  in 
that  town  by  name  except  Sandaiji  Oglou.  I  told  him 
that  he  should  have  the  names  in  the  way  he  desired. 

Seeing  that  mezzo-tintos  would  be  useless,  I  brought 
before  him,  in  strong  light  and  shade,  the  case  of  poor 
Yorvacki,  relating  all  the  circumstances  as  I  had  heard 
them  a  few  hours  before,  telling  all  that  I  knew  of  that 
industrious,  worthy  fellow,  and  making  a  full  stop  by 
putting  the  petition  into  his  hands.  He  glanced  his 
eye  over  the  paper  as  if  he  could  read  it  (which,  I  was 
assured,  he  could  not),  then  thrust  it  under  a  cushion  of 
the  divan,  promising,  however,  to  examine  into  that 
matter  to-morrow. 

Monsieur  C.  proceeded  to  open  the  case  of  wrong 
which  had  been  laid  before  him.  A  few  days  ago,  at 
Fhilladar  (in  the  coffee-house  where  we  had  first  alighted, 
when  going  in  search  of  the  poor  Albanians),  a  murder 


Chap.  XVL  A  TURKISH  STATESMAN.  9 

had  been  publicly  committed.  A  Turk,  well  known  in 
that  neighbourhood — and  never  known  for  good — went 
into  the  cafe,  armed  and  dressed  like  one  of  the  Pasha's 
own  tufekjees,  and  shot  a  Greek  against  whom  he  was 
known  to  have  an  old  grudge.  His  pistol-ball  not  only 
killed  his  enemy,  or  the  man  he  hated,  but  badly 
wounded  another  Greek  of  the  place  who  was  sitting  by 
him.  The  assassin,  having  other  arms,  while  the  Greeks 
had  none,  escaped.  Upon  the  case  being  reported  at 
Brusa  the  Pasha's  or  Khodjk  Arab's  tufekjees  were  sent 
to  Philladar,  and  there,  instead  of  looking  after  the 
Mussulman  murderer,  they  seized  the  caiejee  and  all 
his  family,  and  every  poor  Greek  that  was  said  to  have 
been  in  the  coffee-house  or  near  to  it,  when  the  murder 
was  committed.  These  innocent  people  were  chained, 
brought  from  Philladar  to  Brusa,  and  thrown  into  the 
Pasha's  prison.  The  cafejee  or  keeper  of  the  coffee- 
house had  fallen  ill  in  that  foul  hole  (just  opposite  to 
the  room  in  which  we  were  now  sitting)  and  was  be- 
lieved to  be  in  a  dying  state.  Two  or  three  days  ago 
his  mother  went  weeping  to  the  house  of  the  English 
consul,  to  know  if  anything  could  be  done  for  her  son — 
whose  crime  amounted  to  this,  that  a  Christian  had 
been  murdered  by  a  Turk  in  his  coffee-room.   Madame 

S had  been  much  affected  by  the  old  woman's  deep 

grief;  but  her  husband,  the  consul,  could  not  interfere 
officially ;  and  the  French  consul  could  only  interfere 
(to  use  a  word  I  detest)  officiously.  As  these  last  de- 
tails were  gone  over,  the  Pasha  appeared  to  be  consi- 
derably flustered;  but  at  the  end  he  told  Monsieur 
C.  that  he  had  liberated  the  Philladar  prisoners  this 
very  evening,  and  that  they  had  been  brought  over  to 


10  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI.^ 

Brusa  only  to  be  examined  as  witnesses.  Begging  his 
Excellency's  pardon,  this  last  assertion  was  notoriously 
and  monstrously  untrue.  But  if  it  were  true  that  the 
Greeks  had  been  brought  over  only  for  the  sake  of  evi* 
dence,  what  could  be  thought  of  a  system  of  justice 
which  loaded  witnesses  with  chains,  threw  them  into  a 
horrid,  infectious  prison,  and  kept  them  there  more  than 
a  week,  and  did  not  allow  them  to  depart  (as  we  learned 
subsequently)  until  they  had  paid  heavy  fees  to  Khodjk 
Arab  ?  And  what  of  a  system  of  justice  which  (thus 
treating  witnesses)  makes  no  perquisition  after  the  cri- 
minal ?  And  what  again  of  me  blessed  Tanzimaut,  and 
all  the  rescripts  and  ordinances  which  have  been  throw- 
ing dust  in  the  eyes  of  Christendom,  when  the  united 
evidence  of  all  the  Christian  Greeks  and  Albanians 
living  in  Philladar  would  not  have  sufficed  to  convict 
the  Mussulman  murderer,  if  he  could  have  brought  only 
two  Turks  to  swear  to  an  alibi  ? 

Mustapha  Nouree  changed  the  conversation,  by 
taking  a  sudden  leap  into  agricultural  matters — ^which 
he  again  discussed  like  a  grazier  or  a  carcass-butcher. 
Would  his  Syrian  cows  (those  invisible  cows  I)  be  worth 
a  great  deal  of  money  in  Frankistan  ?  He  had  1500 
of  the  merinos  breed  of  sheep,  or  a  breed  proceeding 
from  the  cross  by  the  Sultan's  stock.  Would  the 
Turkish  wool  rise  in  the  markets  of  Europe  ?  Would 
he  be  able  to  get  a  good  price  for  his  fleeces  ?  Monsieur 
C,  as  a  merchant,  told  him  the  prices  of  wool,  and 
I  told  him  that  the  sale  of  Turkish  wool,  or  its  prices, 
must  depend  upon  the  health  and  condition  of  the  sheep, 
and  the  cleanliness  with  which  the  wool  was  prepared 
and  shipped.    Again  shifting  the  topic,  he  plumped 


Chap.  XYL  A  TURKISH  STATESMAN.  11 

down  upon  Dr.  Davis  and  the  Sultan's  Model  Farm  at 
San  Stefano.  Dr.  Davis  had  wasted  a  great  deal  of 
money;  the  experiment  of  growing  American  cotton 
had  completely  failed;  the  Sultan  would  make  no 
protit  by  this  speculation.  He,  Mustapha  Nouree,  well 
knew  all  these  fetcts  from  some  persons  who  had  recently 
come  from  tixe  capital,  and  it  grieved  him  sorely  that 
the  Sultan  should  throw  away  so  many  gruahes.  Son 
Excellence  then  asked  whether  I  was  a  close  friend  of 
Dr.  Davis,  and  had  influence  with  him — "because," 
said  the  Pasha,  "  I  have  a  chiftlik  of  mine  own  which 
touches  upon  the  Model  Farm,  and  I  should  be  very 
glad  if  Dr.  Davis  would  say  he  wanted  it,  and  would 
persuade  the  Sultan's  people  to  get  it  bought  for  him  : 
the  price  is  only  500,000  piastres.  If  you  could  speak 
privately  to  the  American  on  this  subject  I  should  be 
very  gratefrd."  I  said  that  what  Dr.  Davis  wanted 
was  not  more  land,  but  hands  to  work  upon  the  land  he 
had,  and  that  I  could  use  no  influence  in  this  way.  He 
again  looked  glum.  I  delivered  him  a  message  as  Dr. 
Davis  had  by  letter  requested  me  to  do :  it  was  simply 
the  offer  of  some  of  the  American  cotton  seed  with  in- 
structions how  to  cultivate  it.  "  As  for  that,"  said  the 
Pasha  very  gruffly,  "  I  know  I  can  get  as  much  as  I 
like  from  Boghos  Dadiau.  But  what  good  would  it  do 
me  ?  What  use  is  it  to  anybody  ?  American  cotton 
will  not  grow  in  this  country.  Dr.  Davis's  experiment 
has  failed*"  I  did  not  directly  propose  that  he,  the 
Pasha,  should  give  one  or  two  of  his  Syrian  cows  to 
contribute  to  the  improvemeots  at  the  Sultan's  Model 
Farm ;  for  this  proposition  had  been  left  to  my  dis- 
oretion,  and  I  saw  it  would  be  idle  to  make  it  unless  I 


I 


I 


12  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

put  the  COWS  in  the  shape  of  a  bribe  to  the  Doctor,  or 
as  an  inducement  to  make  him  intrigue  in  order  to  pur- 
chase the  chiftlik — ^which,  I  am  sure,  my  friend  would 
not  have  done  for  all  the  cows  of  Syria. 

It  was  pretty  evident  before  this  that  he  had  had 
enough  of  our  company.  Before  going,  I  however 
again  alluded  to  the  case  of  poor  Yorvacki,  expressing 
in  words  a  hope  I  did  not  feel,  that  that  industrious, 
worthy  man  would  receive  some  reparation  and  justice, 
or  be  at  the  least  protected  from  such  violence  in  iuture. 
The  only  answer  I  now  got  was  delivered  in  a  very 
sulky  voice  indeed — "Send  me  a  paper  with  the 
names,  and  then  we  shall  see.**  If  he  had  not  given 
me  the  six  partridges  before  the  conversation  began,  he 
certainly  would  not  have  given  them  to  me  when  it 
ended.  At  our  leave-taking  he  did  not  accompany  us 
towards  the  door  as  on  the  former  occasion — he  did  not 
even  rise  from  his  seat  on  the  divan.  As  soon  as  our 
steps  were  beyond  the  threshold  of  that  apartment,  I 
was  beset  by  his  menials  all  hungry  for  backshish. 
I  gave  his  head-sportsman  about  double  the  market- 
price  of  the  six  partridges,  feed  the  tchibouquejee,  the 
cafejee,  the  cook,  the  door-keeper,  and  the  fellow  who 
took  care  of  our  mud-boots,  and  turned  out  into  the 
filthy  streets  with  a  purse  considerably  lightened. 

This  scene  at  the  Brusa  konack  is  not  dramatized* 
On  the  following  morning  I  wrote  down  in  my  diary 
nearly  all  that  had  passed  or  been  said ;  and  I  have 
not  added  a  single  embellishment  And  this  was 
Mustapha  Nouree  Pasha,  who  had  been  for  more  than 
twenty  years  oue  of  the  great  men  of  reformed  Turkey, 
and  who  was  now  holding  one  of  the  most  important 


Chap.  XVI.  A  TURKISH  STATESMAN.  13 

governments  in  the  empire  I  By  universal  consent  he 
was  brutally  ignorant  and  even  stupid,  except  where  his 
own  interests  were  immediately  concerned ;  but  when 
he  was  allured  by  a  gain,  or  disquieted  by  the  appre- 
hension of  a  loss,  he  was  said  to  be  the  cunningest  of 
men.  He  was  an  old  and  practised  courtier,  and  was 
known  to  have  immense  influence  with  the  Sultan's 
black  neutralized  men  and  white  women.  His  history, 
as  related  to  us,  both  here  and  at  Constantinople, 
was  but  the  counterpart  of  the  history  of  half  of 
the  great  pashas.  He  was  the  son  of  one  of  the 
poorest  and  lowest  of  Stamboul  Turks ;  but  as  a  boy 
he  had  been  remarkably  handsome,  and  on  this  account 
Sultan  Mahmoud  had  taken  him  into  his  household. 
He  was  now  enormously  fat  and  bloated,  taking  no  ex- 
ercise, but  passing  his  whole  life  between  his  harem  and 
his  divan,  on  which  he  sat  cross-legged  like  a  joss.  His 
occasional  courtesy  to  Franks  was  all  forced :  he  hated 
their  society,  their  manners,  and  their  religion ;  for, 
next  to  the  passion  of  avarice,  the  strongest  feeling  in 
his  breast  was  Mussulman  fanaticism  and  superstition. 
The  society  he  cherished  was  that  of  a  set  of  filthy 
vagabonds  or  wandering  dervishes  and  fakirs.  He  was 
fattening  on  the  spoils  of  the  Mahometan  church,  he 
was  seeing  tibe  mosques  &lling  to  ruins  and  the  medres- 
sehs  or  colleges  becoming  void ;  but  he  clung  to  the 
excrescences  of  the  Mussulman  faith ;  and  if  there  had 
been  any  reactionary  movement  or  outbreak  of  fanati- 
cism, he  was  far  more  likely  to  join  in  it  (in  secret) 
than«  to  take  any  measures  for-  checking  it.  His  Ee- 
hayah  or  Lieutenant,  whom  we  avoided  seeing,  was  re- 
ported to  have  much  more  ability  and  a  great  deal 


14  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVl. 

more  vice  thaa  Mustapha  Nouree ;  he  was  a  barefaced 
profligate,  but  active,  persevering,  and  bold.  He  did 
all  the  business  that  was  done,  and,  with  a  show  of  the 
most  abject  submission,  led  the  dull-headed  Pasha  by 
the  nose.  His  natural  acuteness  would  have  prevented 
much  mischief  which  was  committed  without  an  object, 
or  without  the  prospect  of  gain  to  any  party ;  but  if  the 
Pasha  interfered,  he  would  on  no  account  contradict 
him : — 

"  Pazzo  chi  al  sao  signor  oontraddir  mole, 

Sebben  dioesse  ch'  ha  veduto  il  giomo 

Pieno  di  stelle,  e  k  mezza  notte  il  sole."* 

This  is  the  philosophy  of  all  the  secondary  men,  and 
hence  the  great  men  in  Turkey  never  hear  the  truth. 
The  grandees  are  incessantly  surrounded  by  retainers 
and  dependants,  who  risk  no  opinions  of  their  own,  and 
take  the  words  of  their  chiefs  as  inspirations.  Let  a 
stupid,  bloated  Pasha  say  what  he  will — 

"  Di  varie  voci  subito  un  conoento 

S'  ode  accordar  di  quanti  n'  ha  d*  intomo ; 
E  chi  non  ha  per  mniltli  ardimento 

La  bocca  aprir,  oon  tutto  il  viso  applaude, 
E  par  che  voglia  dire  :  anch'  io  oonsento."  f 

The  next  morning  we  sent  the  lists  of  names  written 
in  good  Turkish.  In  the  Billijik  affairs  the  Pasha 
never  did  anything.  The  proceedings  in  the  case  of 
Yorvacki  will  convey  a  very  perfect  notion  of  Turkish 
justice.  The  day  after  our  interview  with  the  Pasha 
a  tufekjee  made  his  appearance  in  the  village  of  Ke- 
lessen,  and  had  some  private  conference  with  the  tchor- 
bajees.  When  this  was  over,  his  old  enemy  sent  for 
Yorvacki  and  told  him  that  the  next  time  he  would 

♦  ArioBto,  « Satira  Prima.*  t  Id.  id. 


Chap.  XVI.  DENIAL  OP  JUSTICE.  15 

hang  him  up  by  the  neck  and  not  by  the  heels,  and 
that  then  he  might  go  and  complain  if  he  could.  Three 
days  after  this  the  Pasha  sent  two  tufekjees  to  carry  the 
tchorbajees  of  Kelessen  to  Brusa ;  and  on  the  day  after 
this  Yorvacki  was  summoned  before  the  Pasha  and  con- 
fronted with  the  tufekjee  who  had  eaten  goose  and 
the  tchorbajees,  who  boldly  denied  everything  alleged 
against  them.  The  Pasha  bullied  Yorvacki,  told  him 
that  he  must  produce  his  witnesses  and  give  security  for 
his  own  and  their  appearance  to-morrow  at  noon-day. 
When  out  of  the  presence-chamber,  that  old  savage 
Khodja  Arab  and  his  tufekjees  fell  upon  the  poor  Greek, 
telling  him — a  rayah,  a  slave,  a  pezavenk,  a  dog — 
that  they  would  teach  him  how  to  go  and  complain  to 
Frank  consuls  and  Frank  travellers  and  present  peti- 
tions to  the  Pasha.  The  Khodja,  spitting  in  his  face, 
told  him  that  he  could  get  no  witnesses  to  appear,  and 
that  he  knew  it ;  and  that  if  he  did  not  bring  up  big 
witnesses  to-morrow,  he  should  be  thrown  into  prison. 
They  made  use  of  terrible  menaces  and  of  much  beasdy 
language.  The  poor  fellow  came  again  to  us  sadly  de- 
pressed in  spirits,  for  he  felt  quite  sure  that  none  of  the 
Greeks  who  saw  him  hung  by  the  heels  would  have 
courage  enough  to  come  forward  and  certify  to  the 
&cts.  They  were  all  too  much  afraid  of  Ehodjk  Arab. 
The  Ehodjk  now  and  then  shot  a  man  on  the  highway, 
and  swore  he  was  a  robber.  He  could  always  find  a 
pretext  for  getting  a  Greek  into  trouble.  ^^  HelbettS  hir 
gun  ellimden  guetch^eksin  " — Surely  one  day  you  will 
pass  through  my  hands  I  Thes^  were  words  of  terror 
when  they  proceeded  from  the  mouth  of  the  tufekjee- 
bashi,  whether  they  were  addressed  to  Turk  or  Greek, 


16  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

Armenian  or  Israelite.  Yorvacki  assured  us  that  at 
least  fifteen  persons  had  witnessed  his  maltreatment. 
We  kept  him  with  us  till  night,  and  then  sent  him  to 
his  village  to  try  and  induce  some  of  his  witnesses  to 
appear,  advising  him,  in  case  of  failure,  to  go  across  the 
plain  to  John's  house  at  Hadji  Haivat,  where  the  tufek- 
jees  would  be  very  shy  of  making  their  appearance. 
Not  one  of  the  witnesses  would  attend,  telling  him 
that  if  they  did  their  case  would  soon  be  as  bad  as  his 
own.  There  was  a  Greek  of  Kelessen,  named  Alexan, 
who  occasionally  worked  about  the  farm  at  Hadji  Haivat 
— a  very  good-looking  fellow,  and  one  who  appeared  to 
have  more  spirit  than  the  rest.  He  had  witnessed  the 
scene  at  the  coffee-house  at  Kelessen,  and  had  related 
to  us  all  that  he  had  seen.  We  sent  for  him  and  asked 
whether  he  would  not  go  to  the  Konack,  and  repeat  to 
the  Fasha  what  he  had  told  to  us  ?  No  !  he  was  afraid 
of  Khodja  Arab,  and  his  allies  the  tchorbajees  !  If  he 
appeared  he  would  be  a  ruined  man  I 

Monsieur  G.  sent  his  drogoman  to  tell  the  Fasha  that 
the  complaining  party  could  not  bring  up  his  witnesses, 
and  to  explain  the  reasons  why  he  could  not  Mustapha 
Nouree  said  that  he  would  send  and  bring  the  witnesses, 
but  nearly  a  month  passed  and  nothing  was  done. 
When  the  Turk  had  murdered  the  Greek  over  at  Fhil- 
ladar,  the  Fasha  sent  and  brought  a  score  of  Greeks  to 
Brusa,  and  threw  them  into  his  prison,  pretending  to  us 
that  this  was  done  only  to  obtain  evidence,  as  the  Greeks 
would  not  have  come  voluntarily.  If  it  had  been  a 
Greek  that  had  killed  a  Turk — no  matter  under  what 
provocation,  or  even  if  only  in  self-defence — he  would 
have  brought  the  whole  village  of  Fhilladar  into  his 


Chap.  XVL  TCHORBAJEES.  17 

prison.  Then  why  did  he  not  send  to  the  Greeks  at 
Kelessen,  which  was  so  much  nearer — ^which  was  abnost 
at  the  gates  of  Brusa  ?  Why  throw  upon  the  helpless 
accuser  and  sufferer  the  task  of  bringing  up  his  wit- 
nesses?  He  might  as  well  have  told  poor  Yorvacki 
to  go  over  to  Constantinople^  and  bring  him  the  Sultan's 
chief  eunuch.  The  reason  of  all  this  was,  that  the 
tchorbajees  of  Kelessen '  were  protected  both  by  the 
Kehayah  Bey  and  the  head  of  the  police,  and  that  the 
Pasha  was  ofiended  at  having  had  the  truth  told  him  by 
Franks — the  only  persons  who  dared  tell  it. 

In  the  meanwhile  Yorvacki  remained  almost  entirely 
at  Hadji-Haivat,  and  his  tchorbajees  set  up  the  cry 
that  he  was  a  thief  and  robber,  and  that  he  had  not 
paid  his  saliane  for  four  years.  The  French  consul 
made  another  application  to  the  Pasha,  and  gave  another 
list  of  the  names  of  the  persons  who  were  present  at 
Yorvacki's  torture.  The  Pasha  said  that  the  Greek 
tchorbajees  were  very  apt  to  be  great  rogues;  that  the 
Greeks  ought  to  change  them ;  that  they  elected  them 
themselves ;  that  the  election  was  free,  and  uncontrolled 
by  the  Mussulmans;  that  the  tchorbajees  settled  the 
accounts  of  the  villages ;  and  that  if  the  Greeks  had 
bad  tchorbajees  it  was  all  their  own  fault  Here  again 
there  was  little  else  than  downright  lying.  The  Turkish 
authorities  did  interfere  in  all  the  elections  in  the  towns 
and  villages.  The  Greeks  no  more  dared  to  choose  for 
tchorbajee  a  man  not  approved  by  the  Turks,  than  they 
dared  to  appear  as  witnesses  against  Ehodja  Arab  or 
any  of  his  gang.  The  tchorbajees  divided  their  spoil 
with  some  of  the  potent  Turks,  and  those  who  had 
nominated  them  kept  them  in  office  and  supported  them 

VOL.  n.  c 


18  TUEKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

in  every  unjust  act.  The  tchorbajees  .ought  to  be 
elected  annually ;  but  six,  seven,  or  even  more  years, 
were  allowed  to  pass  without  any  election ;  and  during 
their  long  tenure  of  office  the  tchorbajees  tried  to  grow 
fat  by  oppressing  and  robbing  the  weak.  In  the  Fasha- 
lik  of  Brusa  these  was  scarcely  an  exception  to  this  rule, 
except  at  the  very  large  and  strong  village  of  Demir- 
desh.  The  tchorbajees  of  each  villagfi  had  what  they 
called  their  patron  or  protector.  Khodjk  Arab,  who 
had  great  power  everywhere,  was  the  patron  of  the 
tchorbajees  of  Kelessen.  Mr.  David  Urquhart,  who 
has  drawn  many  fantastical  pictures  of  things  as  they 
ought  to  be,  but  not  as  they  are,  makes  quite  a  charm- 
ing tableau  of  the  municipal  institutions  of  Turkey,  and 
calls  the  town  and  village  councils  nothing  less  than 
"  Amphictyonic"  May  the  gods  and  patriots  of  ancient 
Greece  forgive  him  this  flat  blasphemy  1 

I  told  a  person,  who  I  was  quite  sure  would  repeat 
my  words  to  Mustapha  Nouree,  that  I  was  astonished 
that  no  justice  had  been  rendered  to  Yorvacki ;  that  I 
felt  confident  the  Sultan  would  disapprove  of  such  con- 
duct ;  that  I  had  a  petition  which  I  would  present  to 
Beshid  Fasha,  and  that  I  certainly  would  tell  the  facts 
of  the  case  to  Sir  Stratford  Canning  when  he  arrived. 

At  last,  on  the  1 8th  of  December,  after  the  Fasha 
had  promised  the  French  consul  that  no  harm  should 
befal  the  accuser,  and  that  all  the  witnesses  should  be 
present,  Yorvacki  attended  a  summons  and  went  to  the 
konack,  into  the  dreaded  presence  of  Mustapha  Nouree. 
Instead  of  finding  all  the  witnesses  he  had  named — and 
of  whose  names  two  lists  had  been  given  to  the  Fasha 
in  writing — ^he  found  only   the   tchorbajees,  and  two 


Chap.  XVI.        YORVACKI  BEFORE  THE  PASHA.  19 

Greeks  of  their  party.     The  tufekjee  who  had  adminis- 
tered the  torture  was  not  there.     Yorvacki  saw  him 
quietly  smoking  his  pipe  at  the  gate  of  the  konack ;  but 
the  fellow  was  never  simimoned  into  the  hall,  for  he  was 
a  Mussulman,  and  above  the  reach  of  Christian  evidence. 
The  tchorbajees  of  course  denied  the  facts,  and  were  of 
course  supported  by  the  two  witnesses  who  had  been 
selected  by  themselves  and  their  patron  and  partner 
Khodja  Arab.     The  Fasha  never  put  the  two  witnesses 
to  the  oath,  as  by  law  he  was  bound  to  do.     It  suited 
him  to  consider  the  whole  matter  as  a  village  squabble, 
at  which  the  Mussulman  tufekjee  had  been  present  only 
by  chance ;  and,  without  offering  any  redress,  he  advised 
Yorvacki  to  go  back  to  Kelessen  and  make  friends  with 
the  villagers  and  his  tchorbajees.     He,  however,  flat- 
tered and  tried  to  cajole  the  poor  fellow,  telling  him  that 
he  had  heard  how  industrious  he  was,  how  good,  orderly, 
and  so  on.     Son  Excellence  ended  by  telling  him  that 
he  might  rely  on  his  justice  and  protection ;  that  he 
need  not  in  future  apply  to  Franks ;  that  his  protection 
was  the  only  one  worth  having,  and  that  the  Franks, 
whether  consuls  or  only  travellers,  had  no  right  to  in- 
terfere in  these  matters.     Yorvacki  was  scarcely  allowed 
to  open  his  lips  ;  but  he  had  the  courage  to  say  that  if 
all  his  witnesses  had  been  brought,  and  had  spoken  the 
truth,  a  very  different  tale  would  have  been  told.     As 
he  left  the  konack,  Khodja  Arab,  who  had  the  tchor- 
bajees by  his  side,  again  abused  and  threatened  him,  in 
the  coarsest  and  most  violent  manner,  telling  him  that 
he  should  pay  for  all  this,  that  he  would  soon  have  him 
in  his  dutches,  and  fast  by  the  legs  in  Uie  konack  pri- 
son*    The  poor  fellow  came  straight  from  this   den 

c2 


20  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

of  iniquity  to  us,  and  related  the  satisfaction  he  had 
received. 

Ever  since  our  first  arrival  at  Brusa  we  had  heen 
acquainted  wi&  a  Catholic  Armenian  merchant,  named 
Serafino,  whose  eldest  son  had  been  condemned  for  a 
murder  of  which  he  was  perfectly  well  known  to  be  in- 
nocent. Through  great  exertions  the  youth's  life  had 
been  spared,  and  he  had  been  sent  into  exile  to  Tocat. 
The  latter  doom  had  been  removed,  but  the  young  man 
had  not  been  allowed  to  return  to  Brusa  until  a  few 
days  before  our  arrival  from  the  Lake  of  Apollonia. 
We  saw  him  for  the  first  time  at  the  end  of  November, 
and  'then  heard  his  story  firom  his  own  lips.  "We  had 
heard  it  before  from  John   Zohrab,   from  his  sister, 

Madame  S         ,  firom  Monsieur  C ,  and  others ; 

and  the  French  consul,  as  well  as  our  own  consul,  had 
shown  me  official  reports,  drawn  up  at  the  moment  and 
sent  to  Constantinople* 

At  the  beginning  of  March,  1846,  an  Arab  groom, 
or  horse-cleaner,  was  stabbed  and  killed  at  a  fountain 
on  the  roadside,  between  the  baths  of  Tchekgirghe  and 
Brusa.  It  was  notorious  that  the  murder  was  committed 
by  an  ill-famed  Armenian  vagabond  of  the  Eutychean 
Church,  by  name  Kara  Yasil,  or  Black  Basil.  But  this 
fellow  was  a  beggar ;  there  was  no  money  to  be  gotten 
firom  him;  and  old  Serafino,  a  Catholic  Armenian,  a 
seraff  and  merchant,  and  closely  connected  in  business 
with  the  great  Dooz  Oglous  of  Constantinople,  was  rich, 
and  would  be  able  to  bleed  fi-eely.  Besides,  old  Serafino 
had  enemies  in  the  Pasha's  council,  and  among  the 
powerful  Turks  and  Eutychean  Armenians  at  Brusa. 
He  had  built  and  opened  the  khan  at  the  baths  at 


Chap.  XVI.      FALSE  ACCUSATION  QJjKMURDER.  21 

Tchekgii^he  (that  comfortle^^|fian  where  we  had  passed 
one  night),  and  had  there^Winjured  the  revenues  of 
Nissk  Effendi  and  other  bath  proprietors.  By  numerous 
speculations,  and  banking  and  commercial  enterprises^ 
he  had  excited  jealousy  in  many  quarters.  Some  of  his 
rivals  had  told  him  that  he  was  grasping  at  everything, 
that  he  would  leave  nothing  for  them ;  and  they  had 
threatened  him  with  their  vengeance  so  soon  as  the 
opportunity  should  offer*  His  son  Hohannes  had  been 
at  Tchekgirghe  with  two  companions  the  day  the  murder 
was  committed,  and  it  was  therefore  speedily  resolved 
to  accuse  him  of  the  crime. 

Hohannes  was  then  a  short,  slim  youth,  just  entering  . 
his  nineteenth  year.  He  had  been  guilty  of  some  youth* 
fid  folly  and  extravagance ;  but  that  was  said  to  be  alL 
Probably  his  morals  were  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
those  of  the  sons  of  serafis  in  general.  He  was  in  his 
father's  house,  in  the  city  of  Brusa,  when  the  assassina- 
tion took  plaoe.  He  was  seen  there  by  many  persons, 
having  returned  from  Tchekgirghe  with  his  eomrades, 
and  put  up  his  horse  at  the  stable  where  he  had  hired 
it  An  hour  or  two  later  in  the  evening,  when  the  cry 
was  set  up  that  he  was  the  murderer,  he  was  sitting  in 
his  father's  house,  and  John  Zohrab,  Monsieur  Crespin, 
the  French  consul,  and  others  were  assembled  there 
pour  passer  la  soirie.  • 

The  chaise  was  so  absurd  that  the  youth  laughed  at 
it  Next  he  offered  to  go  at  once  to  the  Fasha  and 
Kadi.  Monsieur  C,  as  if  foreseeing  what  outrage 
would  be  done  to  justice,  offered  to  take  him  to  his  own 
house  and  keep  him  there  under  the  protection  of  the 
French  flag,  until  the  storm  should  blow  over ;  but  the 


•A 


22  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

young  man,  and  his  father  and  mother,  declined  any 
such  protection.  The  night  passed  oflF  quietly  enough  ; 
some  tufekjees  said  that  Hohannes  had  been  at  Tchek- 
girghe,  and  that,  as  he  was  a  chapkin,  there  was  no 
doubt  but  that  he  had  killed  the  Arab ;  others  said  that 
it  could  not  be,  as  they  had  seen  him  riding  quietly  in 
from  the  baths  some  time  before  the  murder  was  said  to 
have  been  committed.  But,  during  that  quiet  night,  the 
wild  and  stupid  Arabs  of  the  town  were  worked  upon ; 
their  old  rogue  of  a  Sheik  was  taken  into  counsel  by 
some  of  the  enemies  of  Serafino,  and  measures  were 
concerted  that  were  very  bimgling,  but  good  enough  to 
pass  in  a  Turkish  court  of  justice.  Early  on  the  follow- 
ing morning  Serafino  took  his  son  to  the  Pasha's  konack. 
They  strongly  exposed  the  absurdity  of  the  accusation  : 
the  murder  was  alleged  to  have  been  committed  at  two 
o'clock,  Turkish  time,  or  two  hours  after  sunset;  the 
Pasha  himself  had  seen  Hohannes,  on  his  return  from 
Tchekgirghe,  ride  leisurely  by  his  own  konack  before 
sunset ;  it  could  be  proved  by  a  host  of  witnesses  that 
he  had  put  his  horse  up  in  the  stable,  and  had  gone 
straight  to  his  father's  house,  where  he  had  remained 
the  whole  evening.  It  was  not  our  friend  Mustapha 
Nouree,  but  a  certain  Salih  Pasha,  who  was  then  gover- 
nor of  Brusa.*  '  He  admitted  the  conclusive  fact  that 
he  had  seen  the  young  man  quietly  passing  his  konack ; 
he  admitted  that  he  considered  the  charge  as  absurdly 
malicious ;  but  by  this  time  the  manoBUvres  of  the  over- 
night were  producing  their  effects ;  the  sheik  of  the 
howling  dervishes,  who  was  also  sheik  of  the  Arabs, 

•  The  same  Salih  who  was  Pasha  of  Salonica  at  the  time  of  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  Albanian  OathoUcs.    See  vol.  i.  chap.  yiiL  pp.  214,  216. 


Chap.  XVI.  T«E  PASHA  INTIMIDATED.  23 

being  himself  an  Arab,  or  of  Arabian  descent,  and  the 
most  remorseless  villain  in  Brusa,  had  stirred  up  the 
horsekeepers  and  some  of  the  Turkish  rabble  of  the 
town;  and  these  people  now  surrounded  the  konack, 
shouting  "  Blood !  blood  I  Life  for  life !  •  A  ghiaour 
has  killed  a  Mussulman!  Let  the  ghiaour  die!"  It 
was  said  that  some  of  them  threatened  to  set  fire  to  the 
four  comers  of  the  city,  and  burn  all  Brusa,  if  Hohannes 
were  not  put  to  death  f(wr  having  murdered  the  Arab. 
The  Pasha  was,  or  pretended  to  be,  greatly  alarmed. 
As  he  was  a  confirmed  coward,  his  fears,  though  un- 
founded, may  have  been  real.  Old  Khodja  Arab,  who 
was  not  then  in  office  as  chief  of  police,  put  these  com- 
ments on  part  of  the  iniquitous  story : — "  All  the  Arabs 
in  Brusa  did  not  exceed  200  men ;  they  were,  as  you 
now  see  them,  a  set  of  horse-cleaners — the  poorest^ 
vilest,  and  most  despised  part  of  the  population :  they 
had  no  arms ;  with  two  of  my  tufekjees  I  would  have 
sent  them  all  back  howling  to  their  houses  or  tents. 
They  never  would  have  dared  to  make  that  noise  if 
they  had  not  been  set  on  by  more  powerful  men.  Many 
of  them  had  seen  the  son  of  Serafino  enter  the  town, 
and  knew  as  well  as  I  did  that  he  could  not  have  com- 
mitted the  murder.  It  was  a  clever  intrigue."  While 
the  Arabs  were  below  in  the  great  -court-yard,  Salih 
Pasha  looked  several  times  out  of  his  window,  saying, 
"  See  what  a  rage  and  fury  there  is !  I  have  not  an 
army  here.  I  have  only  a  few  tufekjees  1  What  can  I 
do  ?"  That  which  he  did  in  the  end  was  this :  he 
clapped  Hohannes  up  in  his  prison,  with  a  set  of  rob- 
bers and  real  cut-throats,  assuring  Serafino  that  he  was 
thoroughly  convinced  of  his  son's  innocence,  but  that 


24  TUEKEY  AKD  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

he  was  sore  afraid  of  the  Arabs,  and  all  that  popular 
iury.  Hohannes  had  two  comrades  with  him  on  that 
unlucky  excursion  to  the  baths,  but  these  were  Christian 
Armenians,  and  their  evidence  could  not  be  taken  in  a 
case  where  the  blood  of  a  true  believer  had  been  shed. 
But  other  evidence  was  procured,  quite  decisive  of  the 
guilt  of  Kara  Yasil,  or  Black  Basil,  and  the  Pasha  was 
obliged  to  order  the  arrest  of  that  ruffian  and  of  his  four 
companions,  who  had  all  been  seen  galloping  into  Brusa 
just  after  the  murder  had  been  committed.  But  the 
Eutychean  Armenians  rallied  round  their  co-religionists ; 
Black  Basil,  reprobate  as  he  was,  was  declared  to  be  a 
man  of  decent  character  and  behaviour ;  all  Serafino's 
enemies  brought  their  m^ice  and  influence  into  play ; 
some  Mussulman  witnesses  were  intimidated,  others 
were  bribed;  and,  after  a  mocking  trial.  Black  Basil 
and  his  associates  were  let  off.  Gabackji  Oglou  Mattios, 
a  rival  sera£^  headed  the  Eutychean  party  in  these  pro- 
ceedings, and  joined  them  in  their  laugh  at  Serafino  and 
his  son.  Having  acquitted  the  real  murderer,  they 
proceeded  to  try  the  innocent  accused.  The  wild  horse- 
keeping  Arabs  who  were  let  into  court,  had  little  else 
to  say  than  that  they  had  been  told  that  Hohannes,  the 
son  of  Serafino,  had  murdered  their  brother,  and  that 
they  believed  it  At  the  first  attempt  two  Mussulman 
witnesses  contradicted  one  another,  and  contradicted 
themselves  so  grossly,  so  ridiculously,  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  receive  their  evidence,  even  in  that  court, 
under  the  eyes  of  two  European  consuls  and  of  several 
other  Franks. 

But  the  day  after  this  essay  two  more  acute  or  better 
instructed  witnesses  were  brought  up.     Yet  even  these 


•» 


Chap.  XVI.  FALSE  ETEDENCB.  •  25 

two  contradicted  one  another,  and  swore  against  facts 
which  were  known  to  many  scores  of  people  in  Brusa. 
They  swore  that  the  mnrder  was  committed  before 
sunset,  whereas  the  Arab  had  been  seen  alive  and  well 
more  than  an  hour  and  a  half  after  that  time ;  that 
Hohannes  was  mounted  on  a  white  horse,  whereas  the 
horse  he  rode  was  a  dark  bay.  Black  Basil  had  ridden 
a  white  horse ;  but  the  stable-keeper  who  had  let  out 
the  horses,  and  all  the  people  about  the  stables,  could 
swear  that  young  Hohannes  had  gone  out  with  a  dark 
bay,  and  had  come  home  with  the  same.  But  these 
men  were  Armenians,  were  Christians,  and  so  their 
evidence  could  not  be  taken.  The  two  instructed  false 
witnesses  also  swore  that  the  youth  had  four  companions 
with  him,  whereas  he  had  but  two,  and  it  was  Black 
Basil  who  had  four.  More  than  fifty  persons — Turks 
as  well  as  Greeks,  Armenians  of  the  two  rival  churches, 
and  poor  Jews — had  seen  Hohannes  return  to  the  town 
before  sunset  with  his  two  comrades,  riding  leisurely 
with  not  a  hair  of  their  horses  turned.  A  still  greater 
number  of  persons  had  seen  the  Armenian  murderer 
and  his  four  companions  galloping  like  mad  down  the 
rough-paved  road  leading  from  the  Baths — had  seen 
the  five  enter  the  town  in  the  dark.  The  people  who 
had  let  the  horses  had  deposed  in  private,  and  were 
ready  to  depose  in  public,  that  their  five  horses  were 
brought  back  in  a  foam — that  Black  Basil  and  one  of 
his  comrades  had  left  their  horses  in  the  streets  to  find 
their  own  way  home,  instead  of  taking  them,  as  usual, 
to  the  stable-door.  The  dagger  with  which  the  murder 
had  been  committed,  had  been  found  on  the  spot,  near 
the  fountain,  and  hundreds  of  persons  could  have  sworn 


26  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

that  it  belonged  to  Black  Basil.  Subsequently  to  the 
sham  trial  evidence  had  been  procured  showing  the  very 
shop  and  the  very  time  at  which  he  had  bought  it. 
But^  through  the  exclusion  of  Christian  witnesses,  and 
the  adroit  management  of  the  chief  of  the  police,  the 
sheik  of  the  howling  dervishes,  Gabackji  Oglou,  and  the 
rest  of  the  enemies  of  Serafino,  his  son  Hohannes,  be- 
fore the  so-called  Court  of  Justice  and  Municipal 
Council  of  Brusa,  was  pronounced  guilty  and  sentenced 
to  lose  his  head.  I  was  assured  by  several  who  were 
present  that  this  second  trial  did  not  last  quite  fifteen 
minutes,  and  that  the  court  would  examine  none  but 
the  two  hired  witnesses. 

By  the  recent  regulations  of  the  humane  Sultan, 
sentence  of  death  could  not  be  legally  executed  without 
his  confirmation.  At  a  greater  distance  and  with  a 
bolder  Pasha  this  confirmation  might  have  been  dis- 
pensed  with;  but  S<ilih  Pasha,  being  so  near  to  the 
capital  and  so  very  timid,  thought  himself  obliged  to 
send  to  Constantinople.  But  his  account  of  the  case 
was  a  tissue  of  falsehoods— some  new,  and  some  taken 
from  the  trial — for  many  things  might  be  easily  be- 
lieved in  Stamboul  that  could  not  obtain  credit  in 
Brusa.  The  diminutive  stripling  Hohannes  was  de- 
scribed as  a  big,  burly  ruffian,  long  familiar  with  crime 
and  bloodshed ;  as  a  road-side  assassni,  who  had  very 
firequently  waylaid  honest  and  inoffensive  people  on  the 
Tchekgirghe  causeway.  When  the  French  consul  in  a 
tete-h-tete  remonstrated  with  the  Pasha,  that  great  and 
just  man  admitted  that  he  had  no  doubt  whatever  of 
the  youth's  innocence,  and  that  he  had  himself  seen 
him  pass  by  his  konack  with  his  two  comrades  before 


Chap.  XVI.        REPOBTS  TO  CONSTANTINOPLE.  27 

sunset;  but  then  he  alleged  that,  having  no  troops,  he 
was  afraid  of  the  Arabs  and  the  Brusa  mob.     When 

Monsieur  C dwelt  upon  the  terrible  injustice  of 

the  sentence,  the  Fasha  shielded  himself  behind  his 
Municipal  Council.     It  was  not  his  act,  nor  could  it  be 
called  the  act  of  his  Kadi  or  Mollah ;  all  the  proceed- 
ings had  taken  place  before  the  Council,  in  which  there 
were  Christian  and  Jewish  members  as  well  as  Mussul- 
man members.     The  Council  had  concurred  in  the  sen- 
tence.   It  was  their  act:  he,  the  Fasha,  washed  his 
hands  of  it  Now  the  Catholic  Armenian  member  of  the 
Council,  revolted  by  the  injustice  of  the  case,  had  retired 
on  this  occasion,  and  has  never  since  then  appeared  in 
Council.  The  Bishop  or  head  of  the  Catholic  Armenians 
at  Brusa  did  however,  through  fear  and  baseness,  put  his 
seal  to  the  sentence  and  to  the  eelam  or  report,  which  he  had 
not  read,  and  which,  in  all  probability,  he  could  not  read. 
The  father  and  mother  of  Hohannes  were  plunged 
into  despair.     Old  Serafino,   who  loved  his  son,  but 
who  loved  his  money-bags  almost  as  much,  was  per- 
plexed and  quite  stupified;;  his  wife  showed  a  great  deal 
more   self-possession  and  more  parental  devotedness. 
The  French  and  English  consuls  drew  up  their  reports 
to  their  several  ambassadors,  wrote  letters  to  several 
influential  persons  in  Constantinople,  and  other  letters 
were  written  to  the  Dooz  Oglous  and  the  heads  of  the 
Catholic  Armenians  in  the  city.     But  who  would  carry 
and  deliver  them  all?     There  was  no  time  to   lose. 
Tchelebee  John  instantly  volunteered  his  services,  and 
taking  one  Turkish  suridjee  with  him,  and  slinging  his 
double-barrel  gun  across  his  shoulders,  he  departed; 
and  he  gallantly  rode  from  Brusa  to  Scutari,  in  very 


28  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

bad  weather,  on  poor,  blandering  post-horses,  and  over 
the  worst  of  mountain-roads,  in  seventeen  hours. 

Speed  was  very  necessary — the  Porte,  without  any 
examination  of  the  case,  was  going  to  confirm  the  sen- 
tence; and  then  execution  would  have  followed  in  a 
day  or  two.  Sir  Stratford  Canning  exerted  himself,  as 
he  always  does  in  the  cause  of  humanity  and  justice ; 
some  of  the  other  embassies  interfered,  and  an  assurance 
was  obtained  ^m  the  Forte  that  execution  should  be 
suspended,  and  that  Hohannes  should  be  brought  over 
to  Constantinople,  and  have  a  hearing  there.  On  the 
29th  of  March  the  young  man  was  carried  to  the  capital 
by  two  tufekjees,  his  father  going  with  him  with  a  well- 
filled  purse.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival  the  youth 
was  brought  before  the  Divan  or  Grand  Council  of 
Justice ;  but  he  was  fnot  to  be  tried,  nor  was  there 
to  be  any  revision  of  the  Brusa  proceedings— he  had 
been  previously  told  by  the  powerful  Armenians  of  the 
Catholic  party  (the  Eutycheans  would  gladly  have  seen 
him  beheaded)  that  he  must  confess  himself  guilty  of 
the  murder  and  throw  himself  on  the  Sultan's  mercy, 
and  that  then  his  life  would  be  saved  through  their 
favour  and  influence  with  the  Forte.  He  had  in  vain 
remonstrated  against  this  dishonouring  course.  ^'  There 
is  no  other,*'  said  his  powerful  co-religionists ;  "  you 
must  take'  it  or  die!"  Some  people  of  the  Catholic 
Armenian  Bishop  or  Fatriarch  went  with  him  to  the 
Grand  Council.  There  were  present  eight  pashas,  two 
katibs  or  scribes,  and  a  deaf  and  dumb  Turkish  servant 
Of  the  pashas  Hohannes  knew  only  Bifat^Fasha  and 
Suleiman  pasha,  two  men  who  have  successively  filled 
some  of  the  highest  offices  of  government — of  Beshid 


Chap.  XVL     THE  GBAND  COUNCIL  OF  JUSTICE.  29 

Pasha's  reformed  and  reforming  government  I.  This 
High  Comrt  told  Hohannes  that  he  had  been  proved 
guilty  of  a  dreadful  murder  in  the  person  of  a  Mus- 
sulman ;  that  seeing  that  the  brother  of  the  murdered 
Arab  had  now  agreed  to  take  the  money-compensation 
instead  of  blood  for  blood,  life  for  life,  the  Sultan's 
government  would  be  merciful,  and  leave  his  own  Patri- 
arch to  decide  upon  his  fate.  "  But,'*  said  the  orator, 
'^  you  must  confess  your  guilt  and  return  thanks  for  the 
Sultan's  clemency."  The  young  man  trembled,  and 
could  not  and  would  not  speak.  "  Would  you  lose  your 
head  ?  Confess  and  return  thanks  I"  said  one  of  the 
Catholic  Armenian  priests.  Hohannes  burst  into  tears. 
Then  a  priest  standing  behind  him,  put  his  hand  on  his 
head  and  forcibly  bowed  it.  This  was  taken  as  con- 
fession enough.  ^^You  must  pay  20,000  piastres  to 
the  Arab's  brother,"  said  the  mouthpiece  of  that  august 
and  upright  Council/  ^'and  now  go  to  the  Sheik-ul- 
Islam,  and  finish  your  ugly  business." 

To  this  head  of  the  law  and  faith  they  went.  He 
had  nothing  to  say  on  the  matter,  except  that  they  must 
go  down  stairs  and  settle  with  his  katibs  for  the  price 
of  a  new  eelam.  The  chief  katib  began  by  asking 
25,000  piastres.  Old  Serafino,  the  father,  wrangled  a 
long  time,  but  at  last  settled  for  15,000.  Then  the 
Arab's  brother  was  called  in,  and  told  that  out  of  the 
20,000  piastres  he  had  received,  he  must  pay  5,000 
piastres.  Here  followed  another  long  and  loud  fracas. 
The  Arab  swore  that  he  would  break  the  agreement, 
and  have  bipod  for  blood,  rather  than  pay  5,000  piastres 
out  of  the  price  of  his  dear  brother.  The  katibs  told 
him  that  it  was  too  late  for  that — that  he  was  a  greedy. 


I 


30  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

grasping  pezavenk,  and  ought  to  be  bastinadoed — that 
he  must  pay  on  the  nail  or  go  to  the  Bagnio.  The 
Arab  paid.  Hohannes  was  then  carried  before  another 
legal  authority,  who  registered  the  proceedings.  This 
was  a  Turk  who  had  some  conscience,  although  he  was 
in  oflSce.  He  was  reading  the  Brusa  eelarriy  which  re- 
presented the  son  of  Serafino  as  a  practised  murderer 
and  most  formidable  ruffian :  when  he  cast  his  eyes  on 
the  beardless  boy  before  him,  he  could  not  conceal 
his  astonishment  and  disgust.  He  muttered  to  himself 
"  kutchuk  I  kutchuk !  this  is  a  very  little  fellow  I  There 
are  no  signs  of  beard  on  his  chin !  There  are  lies  in  the 
eelam  /"  Having  paid  6,000  more  piastres  to  the  katibs 
in  this  office,  the  grievously  afflicted  Serafino  and  his 
bewildered  son  were  carried  to  their  Patriarch,  who  had 
previously  received  the  sum  of  15,000  piastres.  Here 
the  youth  found  his  tongue,  and  spoke  out.  His  Reve- 
rence the  Patriarch  said  it  was  a  hard  case,  a  very  hard 
case,  to  be  made  to  pass  for  a  murderer,  and  to  have  to 
pay  so  much  money  to  the  Turks ;  but  that  the  best 
had  been  done  that  could  be  done  for  him,  and  that  it 
must  be  a  comfort  to  consider  that  his  life  was  now  safe. 
The  High  Priest  then  wept;  but,  nevertheless,  passed 
this  hard  sentence — that  the  youth  should  be  exiled  for 
ever  from  Brusa,  and  be  relegated  at  Tocat.  The  sen- 
tence was  confirmed  by  imperial  firman. 

After  remaining  a  short  time  in  the  Patriarch's 
prison,  Hohannes  was  bailed  out.  As  weeks  passed — 
as  two  months  passed,  he  and  his  friends  imagined  that 
the  sentence  would  not  be  carried  out,  and  that  he  would 
be  allowed  to  remain  in  Constantinople  among  his 
friends  and  relations.     But  one  fine  morning  one  of  the 


Chap.  XVI.      RESTORATION  OF  THE  DROWNED.  31 

Patriarch's  familiars  waited  upon  and  told  him  that  in 
two  days  he  must  embark  for  Tocat.  Hohannes  gave 
way  to  invectives  and  reproaches,  which  were  addressed 
more  to  his  own  clergy  than  to  the  Turks.  In  the  vio- 
lence of  his  passion  he  broke  a  small  blood-vessel. 
Notwithstanding  this,  in  two  days  he  was  carried  on 
board  a  steamboat  under  the  surveillance  and  charge  of 
a  Turkish  cavass.  He  was  to  be  landed  at  Sinope  as 
the  nearest  port  to  Tocat  The  vessel  made  the  offing 
in  a  terrible  storm.  Three  boats  came  off  to  receive 
such  of  the  passengers  as  were  to  land  at  Sinope.  In 
the  boat  which  carried  Hohannes  and  his  cavass  there 
were  eleven  other  persons :  in  the  other  two  boats  there 
were  twenty-five  persons,  besides  the  boatmen.  They 
were  all  three  upset,  and  every  soul  in  them,  except 
Hohannes  and  a  bimbashi,  who  had  gone  off  from  the 
shore,  was  drowned.  Hohannes  had  learned  to  swim 
only  by  paddling  in  the  great  basin  of  the  largest  of  the 
hot-baths  at  Tchekgirghe ;  but,  although  the  distance 
was  but  short,  he  was  well  nigh  drowned  before  he 
reached  the  beach,  or  a  projection  where  some  people 
seized  him  by  the  hair.  The  bimbashi  was  too  fat  a 
Turk  to  sink  at  once ;  but  he  had  gone  down  once  or 
twice  before  the  people  could  catch  hold  of  him,  and 
when  he  was  landed  on  the  beach  he  was  full  of  salt- 
water and  swooned  away.  The  Turks  of  Sinope  carried 
them  both  up  to  the  first  butcher's  shop,  and  there, 
fastening  a  rope  round  the  legs  of  the  fat  bimbashi, 
they  suspended  him,  heels  uppermost,  to  an  iron  hook, 
on  which  the  butcher  was  wont  to  hang  sheep  and  bul- 
locks; and  when  he  was  thus  suspended,  they  bela- 
boured his  posteriors  with  their  fists  and  with  clubs,  in 


32  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

order  to  drive  the  salt-water  out  of  him,  and  bring  the 
spirit  of  life  back  to  him.  Such  is  the  patent  way  of 
restoring  drowned  people  in  Turkey,  They  had  given 
the  bimbashi  precedence,  because  he  was  an  Osmanlee ; 
but  they  wanted  to  hang  Hohannes  up  by  the  heels  also, 
and  they  would  have  done  it  if  he  had  not  recovered 
entire  self-possession,  and  bolted  away  from  the  shop. 
He  gave  himself  up  to  the  Turkish  governor,  who  said 
he  would  send  him  by  the  first  caravan  to  Tocat,  but 
who  otherwise  treated  him  very  kindly.  While  Ho- 
hannes stayed  at  Sinope  eight  of  the  drowned  bodies 
were  washed  ashore  and  buried,  the  first  of  them  being 
the  cavass  who  had  had  him  in  custody,  aud  who  had 
behaved  to  him  in  a  harsh  and  cruel  manner,  because 
he  would  not  give  him  all  the  money  he  wanted. 

In  other  quarters  there  seemed  to  be  something  very 
like  immediate  retribution.  Dire  misfortunes  or  sudden 
death  fell  upon  nearly  every  man  in  Brusa  that  had 
taken  a  bad  part  in  the  affair.  Not  only  some  of  them 
had  died,  but  disease  had  swept  away  their  wives  or 
some  of  their  children — and  at  all  these  fatal  disasters 
the  family  of  Hohannes  and  the  Catholic  Armenians 
generally  had  rejoiced,  and  had  seen  the  finger  of  God 
in  it !  But  Black  Basil,  the  real  murderer,  yet  lived, 
and  Cabackji  Oglou  Mattios  was  a  greater  or  a  richer 
man  than  ever,  being  a  flourishing  partner  of  Mustapha 
Nouree,  the  present  Pasha  of  Brusa.  Old  Serafino  and 
the  rest  of  them  indulged,  however,  in  the  happy  hope 
that  the  two  schismatics — the  murderer  aud  the  accuser 
of  the  innocent — must,  a  little  sooner  or  later,  be  over- 
taken by  the  vengeance  of  heaven  in  this  world,  to  be 
followed  up  by  eternal  damnation  in  the  world  to  come : 


Chap.  XVI.         CERTIFICATES  OP  CHABACTER.  33 

and  all   the  Boman  Catholic  Armenian   priests  said 
"  Amen.'' 

Hohannes  travelled  on  by  land  to  Tocat,  where  he 
remained  fifteen  months,  during  which  time  he  married 
a  Roman  Catholic  Armenian  girl  of  the  place — the 
lady  who  served  us  with  cofiee,  in  Serafino's  own  house 
at  Brusa,  while  Hohannes  was  relating  these  adventures. 
Great  interest  was  made  to  obtain  his  recall.     At  last 
the  Porte,  which  had  acted  upon  such  elevated  principles 
of  morality,  consented,  provided  he  could  obtain  a  good 
character,  or  certificate  of  moral  conduct    from    the 
Turkish  authorities  at  Tocat.     These  authorities  gave 
him  the  best  of  characters,  but  they  made  him  pay  6000 
piastres  for  it.     If  the  devil  himself  had  paid  them 
double  the  sum,  no  doubt  they  would  have  given  him 
the  same  testimonials ;  or,  if  the  devil  had  been  short  of 
money,  they  would  have  given  him  the  same  good  cha- 
racter for  3000  or  for  300   piastres.      Shortly  after 
paying  the  virtuous  men  of  Tocat,  Hohannes  was  told 
that  he  was  free  to  go  where  he  liked,  except  to  Brusa. 
He  came  down  to  Constantinople  with  his  young  wife 
and  an  infant  child,  and  was  there  protected,  and  for 
some  months  employed  by  the  mercantile  house  of  the 
Catholic  Armenian  Billijikjees.      With  their  counte- 
nance, which  was  worth  a  good  deal,  be  applied,  i^  the 
month  of  August  of  the  present  year,  to  a  very  great 
pasha  at  the  Porte,  for  permission  to  return  to  Brusa. 
The  great  pasha   told  him  that  that  grace  depended 
upon  his  Patriarch.     Hohannes  knew  that  nothing  was 
to  be  done  in  that  quarter  without  money ;  and  there- 
fore he  was  obliged  once  more  to  cry  "open  sesame"  to 
die  purse  of  old  Serafino.     During  the  grand  festivals 

VOL.  n.  D 


34  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XYI. 

of  the  late  circumcisions  behind  Scutari,  the  mercenary 
and  corrupt  High  Priest  applied  to  the  Porte,  and  at 
once  obtained  the  desired  permission.  For  his  better 
security  Hohannes  wanted  an  imperial  firman.  The 
great  pasha  said,  ^^  If  anybody  at  Brusa  has  a  finnan 
against  your  returning  to  Brusa^  let  him  show  it!** 
Hohannes,  with  his  Tocat  wife — who  was  not  so  well- 
favoured  as  she  might  have  been — and  his  infant,  had 
arrived  at  Brusa  during  our  journey  to  Cyzicus  and  the 
lakes;  and  when  we  saw  him,  he  was  living  in  his 
father's  house.  There,  I  took  notes  of  the  narrative 
from  his  own  lips,  and  fi*om  the  lips  of  his  father  and 
mother.  The  major  part  of  the  relation  was  confirmed 
by  the  English  and  French  consuls,  who  knew  all  that 
had  passed  down  to  the  point  when  he  had  been  carried 
over  to  Constantinople.  John  Zohrab  could  carry  his 
confirmation  a  little  farther. 

The  mother,  who  had  sufiered  a  long  martyrdom  of 
terror  and  anxiety,  showed  a  good  and  a  high  spirit — a 
spirit  quite  un-Armenian.  When  Hohannes  was  re- 
lating to  us  his  appearance  and  conduct  before  the  Divan 
at  Constantinople,  she  said  that  he  never  ought  to  have 
consented  to  pass  as  guilty  of  a  foul  murder ;  that  he 
ought  to  have  found  his  tongue,  and  to  have  boldly  pro- 
claimed his  innocence  in  the  face  of  the  Council.  She 
went  over  to  Constantinople  soon  after  her  son.  She 
had  employed  a  Turkish  katib,  and  had  prepared  a 
petition  for  the  well-intentioned  young  Sultan ;  and  she 
would  have  fallen  at  his  feet,  as  he  was  going  to  mosque, 
and  have  presented  it ;  but  the  Patriarch  and  his  crew, 
and  the  timid,  dodging,  Papistical  friends  of  the  family, 
and  her  husband,  old  Serafino,  all  cried  out  that  this  would 


Chap.  XVI.  CRIMINAL  JUSTICE.  35 

mar  their  arrangements,  and  again  put  the  life  of  her 
firstrborn  in  jeopardy.  As  she  stated  these  things  to  us, 
her  emotion  was  very  deep :  it  gave  a  tone  of  tragedy 
and  high  poetry  to  a  very  common-place  woman.  We 
went  away  liking  her  much  better  than  either  her  son 
or  her  husband.  The  events  had  much  shaken  the  at- 
tachment of  the  parents  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Arme- 
nian Church,  and  seemed  to  have  brought  the  son  to  the 
conviction  that  all  the  Christian  churches  in  Turkey 
were  mcmstrous  humbugs.  Hohannes  could  read  no 
European  language,  but  only  give  him  a  litUe  French, 
and  you  will  have  a  philosophe.  Though  he  had  be- 
come a  husband  and  a  father,  he  had  still  a  very  youth- 
ful look,  and  was  very  slim  and  slight 

A  few  days  after  this  visit  to  the  house  of  Serafino, 

while  we  were  staying  with  our  friend  R T , 

who  lived  at  the  top  of  Brusa  town,  in  a  very  airy,  cool 
situation,  at  the  distance  of  a  few  steps  from  the  house 
of  the  Sheik  of  the  howling  dervishes,  that  consummate 
old  rc^ue  called  in  a  dependent  of  the  Serafino  family. 
"  What  is  this  I  hear  ?'*  said  the  sheik;  *'  the  son  of 
Serafino,  the  murderer  of  the  Arab  at  the  fountain,  has 
come  back  to  Brusa,  and  has  been  here  many  days, 
without  coming  to  reconcile  himself  with  me,  in  order 
tha  1 1,  their  sheik,  may  reconcile  him  with  the  Arabs 
of  the  town  I  Go,  bid  him  come."  "  And  let  him  bring 
a  good  present  with  him,'*  said  one  of  the  sheik's  women, 
who  followed  the  Armenian  to  the  door.  The  message 
had  been  reported ;  but  old  Serafino  would  not  open  his 
purse,  and  his  son  would  not  go.  I  should  have  feared 
for  the  life  of  Hohannes  if  it  bad  not  been  a  charmed 
one.     One  touch  more — a  truly  Oriental  touch — must 

d2 


36  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

complete  this  picture  of  criminal  justice  in  Turkey.  It 
turned  out  that  the  murdered  Arab's  brother,  who  got 
the  money,  was  not  the  brother  at  all,  nor  any  relation 
to  the  deceased.  A  real  brother  came  up  from  Syria, 
and  claimed  the  price  of  life,  but  the  other  rogue  had 
spent  or  wasted  it  all.  But  the  picture  is  not  yet  quite 
perfect :  there  must  be  one  little  touch  more.  Black 
Basil,  protected  by  his  sect,  and  molested  by  no  one, 
was  swaggering  about  Brusa.  We  saw  the  big  ru£G[an 
several  times  in  the  bazaars ;  and  if  anybody  asked 
Khodja  Arab  who  killed  the  Arab  by  the  fountain,  he 
would  answer,  "  Kara  Vasil,  and  everybody  knows  it ! " 
We  were  rather  frequently  reminded  of  the  existence 
of  the  Sheik  of  the  howling  dervishes,  for  he  was  a  man 
that  made  a  noise  in  the  world ;  and  twice  that  we  hap- 
pened to  be  at  B T 's  on  a  Friday  evening, 

we  heard  the  bowlings  of  his  Teke.  Our  friend,  living 
in  an  entirely  Turkish  quarter,  and  being  the  only 
Christian  there,  had  thought  it  politic  to  cultivate 
friendly  relations  with  the  old  dervish  by  treating  him 
frequently  to  pipes  and  coflee,  and  by  occasionally 
lending  him  small  sums  of  money.  The  old  rogue  was 
always  impecunious,  for  he  had  three  or  four  women  in 
his  harem,  and  three  or  four  hulking  lazy  sons  who  did 
nothing  for  their  living,  and  who  were  neither  old 
enough  nor  siimers  enough  to  set  up  as  Mussulman 
saints ;  and  as  the  Arabs  of  the  town  were  miserably 
poor,  and  as  his  congregation  of  howlers  were  not  rich^ 
the  old  man  did  not  raise  any  great  revenue  either  as 
Bey  of  the  Arabs  or  as  Dervish-Sheik.  When  very 
hard  pressed  tor  money,  it  was  his  wont  to  excite  some 
little  disturbance  in  the  quarter,  and  then  to  step  in  as 


Chap.  XYL  A  DERVISH  SHEIK.  37 

mediator  and  arbitrator.  If  the  people  did  not  pay  him 
well  for  his  peace-making,  he  called  up  Khodja  Arab, 
and  then  the  Sheik  and  the  Khodja  went  shares.  The 
old  man's  history,  as  commonly  related  at  Brusa,  was 
very  simple  and  very  Oriental.  A  great  many  years 
ago  he  had  been  Kehayah  Bey  to  a  great  pasha  at 
Bagdad.  Having  to  make  a  long  journey,  the  pasha 
left  him  in  charge  of  lus  household,  of  his  goods  and 
chattels,  and  of  all  his  business.  The  kehayah  took 
shameful  advantage  of  this  absence,  converting  to  his 
own  use  all  the  women  of  the  pasha's  harem,  and 
making  equally  free  with  the  pasha's  Ganymedes.  The 
facts  were  discovered  on  the  pasha's  return.  Terrible 
was  the  virtuous  indignation,  tremendous  the  wrath  of 
the  great  man  I  The  Kehayah  Bey  was  bastinadoed 
into  a  jelly,  red-hot  wires  were  thrust  into  his  eyes,  and 
then  he  was  cast  out  of  the  town  to  perish  in  the  desert. 
But  his  end  was  not  yet :  his  constitution  was  uncom- 
monly tough.  He  crawled  to  a  teke  of  howling  der- 
vishes ;  and  having  nothing  else  left  for  it,  he  turned 
dervish  and  saint.  This  is  what  the  greatest  villains  do 
or  did.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  country,  but  was  still 
more  common  in  Persia.  As  a  dervish  the  ex-Kehayah 
Bey  had  travelled  and  howled  far  and  wide ;  but  he  had 
now  been  settled  a  great  many  years  at  Brusa,  where  he 
had  opened  a  teke,  and  formed  a  very  considerable 
howling  society  or  club.  He  must  have  been  very  aged : 
his  beard  was  perfectly  white,  and  his  face  was  wrinkled 
all  over  like  a  scorched  parchment.  The  pasha's  hot 
needles  had  not  quite  destroyed  his  sight,  nor  had  old 
age,  for  he  could  still  see  a  little,  and  even  grope  his 
way  about  the  intricate  streets  of  the  town  without  any 


38  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

guide ;  but  his  eyes  had  a  strange  unearthly  cast  and 
appearance,  which  added  greatly  to  the  solemnity  of  his 
performance  in  the  teke.  He  would  not  have  made  so 
good  a  sheik  if  the  men  of  Bagdad  had  not  meddled 
with  his  organs  of  sight.  He  was  as  picturesque  an  old 
rogue  as  eye  could  see,  or  painter  imagine. 

By  this  time  we  had  seen  pretty  clearly  into  the 
working  of  the  old  Municipal  and  the  new  Provincial 
Councils.  By  the  Tanzimaut  every  pasha  was  to  act 
by  and  with  a  Shoorah  or  Council,  assembled  in  his 
konack,  but  freely  chosen  by  the  different  communities, 
and  without  the  assentient  voice  of  the  majority  of 
this  Council  he  was  to  take  no  important  step.  This 
may  have  been  well  meant  by  the  Sultan's  reform 
government ;  but,  like  too  many  other  changes,  it  has 
produced  evil  rather  than  good.  Before^  the  pashas 
were  held  answerable  for  the  acts  of  their  government ; 
now  they  throw  the  responsibility  on  the  Councils. 
And  yet,  in  hardly  any  case,  do  they  allow  the  Council 
a  deliberative  voice.  The  Fasha,  his  Kehayah-Bey, 
and  his  Kadi  have  it  all  their  own  way ;  they  propound 
what  must  be  done,  and  the  members  of  the  Council 
have  nothing  to  do  but  to  concur  and  assent.  None  of 
them  will  make  the  Fasha  or  the  Kadi  their  enemy  by 
a  useless  opposition.  By  the  Sultan's  orders  the 
Greeks,  the  Armenians,  and  even  the  Jews  are  to  be 
represented  in  these  Councils.  But  the  Rayahs  are  of 
course  more  timid  than  the  Mussulmans;  they  are 
glad  to  have  their  attendance  excused,  and  they  are 
now  seldom  summoned  at  all.  When  they  do  attend, 
it  is  only  to  assent  to  every  proposition  made  by  the 
pasha:  as  with  the  tchorbajees,  there  is  no  fireedom 


Chap.  XVI.    SERVILITY  OP  PROVINCIAL  COUNCILS.  39 

of  election :  the  pasha,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
intimates  what  Greek,  Armenian,  or  Jew  shall  be  of 
tiie  Comicil,  and  these  are  named  and  appointed  as  a 
matter  of  comrse  or  of  necessity.  Where  the  pasha 
happens  to  have  a  trading,  speculating  propensity,  as 
at  Bnisa,  he  is  sure  to  put  into  the  Council  some  Ar- 
menians who  are  his  agents,  or  partners,  who  make 
large  profits  by  him  or  through  his  influence,  and  who, 
pro  tantOy  are  his  sworn  slaves.  Such  men  will  not 
hesitate  to  sanction  the  worst  of  measures.  The  Greek 
Bishop,  the  Armenian  Bishop,  the  Catholic  Armenian 
Bishop,  and  the  chief  Rabbi  of  the  Jews,  must  give 
their  signatures  in  certain  cases  affecting  their  several 
flocks.  This  is  made  another  screen  for  the  pasha. 
What  blame,  or  what  suspicion  of  prejudice  and  unfair- 
ness can  rest  upon  him  when  the  case  is  sanctioned  by 
the  Christian  Bishop  or  the  Jewish  Rabbi  ?  In  the 
case  of  Serafino's  son  the  Catholic  Armenian  Bishop 
at  Brusa  put  his  signature  to  the  sentence  of  guilty, 
although  he  had  the  best  of  proofs  to  the  contrary,  and 
knew  of  his  own  knowledge  that  the  young  man  was 
innocent  The  Bishop  acted  under  the  base  influence 
of  fear — an  influence  we  saw  everywhere  at  work  in 
Turkey.  He  afterwards  joined  in  petitioning  for  the 
young  man's  pardon,  and  in  clubbing  money  to  procure 
it  One  morning,  up  at  Eutayah,  a  long  paper  in 
Turkish  was  brought  to  our  host  the  Greek  Bishop 
from  the  Governor  and  Council  to  have  his  seal  put  to 
it  "  I  cannot  read  Turkish,"  said  the  Bishop.  "  I 
have  never  been  consulted  in  this  matter ;  I  know  not 
what  it  may  be;  this  paper  may  contain  mine  own 
deatfaHsentence ;  but  I  must  seal  it  I**    And  sd  he  did. 


40  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

The  prime  manager  of  the  Fasha  of  Brusa*s  specu- 
lations was  the  Armenian  seraff  Cabackji  Oglou,  a 
sordid,  most  selfish  man.  He  was  furious  just  then 
against  a  Frank  merchant  for  having  lent  money  to 
some  Armenians  at  15  per  cent,  interest :  he  himself 
got  from  25  to  50  per  cent  The  Armenians  wanted 
the  borrowed  money  for  a  church;  their  priests  had 
got  hold  of  the  money  and  had  spent  it,  they  could 
give  no  account  in  what  manner,  and  were  not  prepared 
to  pay  the  interest,  although  their  seals  were  to  the 
bond  1 1 !  Two  years'  interest  were  then  due,  and  the 
merchant  was  pressing  for  payment ;  but,  through  the 
influence  he  had  with  the  Fasha,  and  consequently  with 
the  Kadi,  Cabackji  Oglou  baffled  the  Frank  in  his  legal 
pursuit  He  was  determined  to  make  the  merchant 
feel  the  monstrous  impropriety  of  reducing  the  rate  of 
interest.  By  the  universal  consent  of  Turks,  Greeks, 
Armenians,  and  Jews,  this  Cabackji  Oglou  was  worse 
than  the  Fasha,  worse  than  the  Kehayah  Bey,  the 
greatest  rogue  in  all  the  Fashalik. 

The  members  of  the  Brusa  Council — which  Mr. 
Urquhart  would  no  doubt  call  "  Amphictyonic  " — were 
thirteen  in  number;  but  nine  of  them  were  Mussul- 
mans, and  two  of  the  Rayah  members  had  entirely 
withdrawn.  The  Eabbi  of  the  Jews,  having  painfiilly 
perceived  that  his  presence  in  Council  was  of  no  use 
in  checking  oppression  and  injustice,  had  retired  more 
than  a  year  ago ;  and  Sandalji  Oglou  Agob,  after  the 
unjust  sentence  passed  upon  the  son  of  Serafiiio,  re- 
solved never  to  set  his  foot  in  the  Council,  and  they 
had  not  been  able  to  find  any  member  of  his  commu- 
nity to  take  his  place.    As  the  notable  who  represented 


Chap.  XVI.         MEMBERS  OF  BRUSA  COUNCIL.  41 

the  Greek  community  never  attended  except  when 
summoned,  and  never  spoke  in  Council  except  to  say 
"  JEvat  Effendim^'  (Yes,  Sirs,)  there  was  in  fact  only 
one  acting  Rayah  member,  and  he  was  Cabackji 
Oglou.*  During  our  residence  in  the  Fashalik,  when 
some  of  the  most  corrupt  and  nefarious  transactions 
excited  comment  and  remonstrance,  the  Pasha  said, 
"  These  are  not  my  acts.  The  Council  did  this,  not  I." 
And  to  remonstrances  proceeding  from  the  European 
diplomatists  at  Constantinople,  Reshid  Fasha  and  his 
small  satellite  Ali  Effendi  would  say,  that  there  was  no 
longer  any  despotism  in  Turkey,  that  municipal  insti- 
tutions  were  now  cherished,  that  pashas  now-a-days 
could  do  nothing  without  the  consent  of  their  Councils, 
and  that,  without  any  distinction  as  to  race  or  religion, 
all  the  conmiunities  were  fairly  represented  in  these 
Councils. 

By  the  new  system,  which  took  the  far  greater  part 
of  tlie  collection  of  the  revenue  out  of  the  hands  of  the 


•  Here  is  a  list  of  the  Brasa  Council : — 

1.  McrsTAFHA  NouBEE  pASHA,  Qovemor. 

2.  MuBTA  Effendi,  Kehayah  Bey,  or  Tefterdar. 

3.  The  Kadi,  Judge  for  Civil  Matters. 

4.  The  Mufti,  Judge  for  Matters  of  Religion. 

5.  The  Sheik  Saffetui  Effendi,  Chief  of  a  Religious  Institution. 

6.  Hadji  Ali  Effendi,  Manager  of  Vakouf  property. 

7.  Hadji  Mulktab,  Notable. 

8.  Abif  Effendi,  Notable,  and  First  Katib  or  Clerk  of  the  Mehke- 
meh  or  Turkish  Law-court. 

9.  Hadji  Omeb  Effendi,  Notable. 
10.  Cabakji  OoLOtr  Mattios,  Notable  of  the  Eutychean  Armenians, 


CD 


I  and  Banker  and  Factotum  to  the  Pasha. 


A  J  11-  Michelacki  Vabsttebi,  Notable  of  the  Greek  Community. 
S*  \  12.  The  Rabbi  of  the  Jews.  * 

^    J  13.  Sandalji  Oqijov  Aoob,  Notable  of  the  Catholic  Armenian  Com- 
l  munity. 


42  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

pashas,  and  farmed  out  the  taxes,  these  great  governors 
of  provinces  and  many  of  their  sub-goveniors  were  ap- 
pointed to  regular  annual  salaries.  They  were  to  be 
paid  like  the  public  servants  of  civilized  nations,  and 
were  no  longer  to  be  left  to  the  sole  resources  of 
jobbery  and  extortion.  In  many  instances  these  sala- 
ries are  enormously  high,  and  altogether  dispropor*' 
tionate  to  the  means  of  the  country.  Mustapha  Nouree 
was  receiving  at  Brusa  a  salary  of  some  8500Z.  per 
annum.*  The  Ministers  at  Constantinople  are  paid 
far  more  than  any  members  of  the  British  Cabinet 
The  custom  also  was  introduced  of  giving  retiring  pen- 
sions to  tiie  displaced  servants  of  government,  and  die 
old  and  very  sharp  practice  of  seizing  upon  and  appro- 
priating the  money,  goods,  and  chattels  of  a  disgraced 
or  dismissed  pasha  or  other  great  man,  was  entirely 
given  up  by  the  Sultan,  whose  father,  Mahmoud,  very 
frequenliy  replenished  his  purse  in  that  way.  But  the 
diminution  of  temptation  to  jobbery  and  extortion  has 
not  been  attended  with  any  visible  decline  of  the  old 
evil  practices.  A  shrewd  old  Turk  said  to  us,  "  Our 
pashas  are  as  hungry  as  ever.  Their  posts  are  not 
sold  quite  so  openly  as  they  used  to  be,  but  they  are 
hardly  ever  obtained  without  bribery,  and  they  are  not 
to  be  retained  without  intrigue,  and  a  heavy  annual 
outlay  in  the  shape  of  presents  to  the  Sultan's  women, 

*  Mnstapha  Nouree^s  French  doctor,  tm  hovmM  du  Midi  (of  whom  I 
have  said  little  because  I  could  BOt  say  any  good),  was  constantly  boasting 
that  Son  Excellence  got  three  times  more  money  than  his  pay.  **  Alors  1" 
said  that  honest  Frenchman  Monsieur  G — ,  "  Alors  votre  Pasha  il  vole  1" 

"  Pardonnez  moi,**  said  the  hekim,  *'  mon  Pasha  ne  vole  pas,  mais  il 

From  the  evening  on  which  we  heard  this  discourse  we  always  turned 
the  verb  "  w?€r  "  into  "  arranger,^ 


Chap.  XVI.  ARMBNIAM  SERAFF8.  43 

to  the  people  about  the  Court,  and  to  some  of  the 
Ministers.  The  pashas  rob  the  people,  but  few  of 
them  grow  very  rich  or  long  keep  their  wealtii.  They 
begin  by  contracting  enormous  debts  with  the  Arme- 
nian serafl^,  in  order  to  obtain  their  places  and  have 
the  means  of  entering  upon  them  wiih  state  and  dig- 
nity; some  Armenian  or  other  becomes  the  seraff  of 
each  of  these  great  men,  receiving  his  money,  keeping 
his  accounts  and  all  the  rest ;  and  I  have  noticed  that 
whenever  a  man  gets  into  debt  with  Armenians^  he  is 
sure  never  to  get  clear  again.  The  Armenians  are 
eating  us  all  up ;  they  are  getting  all  the  money  of  the 
country  into  their  own  hands,  or  under  their  control. 
The  Armenians  have  as  much  to  do  with  government 
appointments  as  they  had  when  the  places  were  pub- 
licly sold.  I  should  like  to  see  the  man  that  can  step 
into  a  high  place,  and  keep  it,  without  their  assistance. 
This  Reshid  Pasha  has  appointed  many  poor  fellows  to 
office ;  but  it  was  the  Armenian  gold  that  paved  the 
way  for  lliese  men  at  Court ;  it  was  the  money  of  the 
serafis  which  gave  them  their  outfit — their  horses,  their 
fine  dresses,  their  costly  rings,  their  diamond-mounted 
pipes — ^and  it  is  by  jobbing  with  the  sera&  that  they 
keep  up  their  interest  over  at  Stamboul.  The  Arme- 
nians must  have  heavy  interest  for  their  advances; 
and  when  you  want  to  leave  a  ruined  estate  and  a 
family  to  poverty,  only  allow  an  Armenian  to  manage 
your  affairs  for  you  I  Believe  me,  under  this  boasted 
new  system  there  is  quite  as  much  extortion  as  under 
the  old.  In  Mahmoud's  days  these  Armenian  seraiis 
and  rapacious  pashas  now  and  tiben  had  &eir  heads 
taken  dS,  which  was  some  comfort  to  us,  although  we 


44  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

did  not  get  back  the  money  of  which  they  had  robbed 
us ;  but  now  they  rob  and  plunder  as  much  as  ever, 
and  no  punishment  overtakes  them.  Now  the  pashas 
always  screen  themselves  behind  their  Shoorahs  or 
Councils,  and  no  one  is  really  responsible;  and  the 
Armenians^  with  their  nishans  and  their  honourable 
decorations  embroidered  on  their  caps,  hold  up  their 
heads  higher  than  the  best  of  us  Osmanlees,  and  are 
even  allowed  to  entertain  the  Sultan  at  dinner  in  their 
own  houses." 

An  English  friend,  for  whose  experience  and  opinions 
I  entertain  the  highest  respect,  had  come  to  very 
melancholy  conclusions  as  to  the  practicability  of  check- 
ing official  corruption  and  purifying  the  provincial  ad- 
ministration of  Turkey.  He  had  lived  thirteen  or 
fourteen  years  in  the  country,  he  had  travelled  wellnigh 
over  every  part  of  the  vast,  unpeopled  empire,  he  was 
impressed  more  deeply  than  any  man  I  knew  at  Con- 
stantinople with  the  political  necessity  of  sustaining  the 
tottering  government  and  preserving  the  independence 
and  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  dominions ;  he  had  been 
most  intimately  acquainted  with  Turks  of  all  classes 
and  conditions;  he  had  relations  of  close  friendship 
with  some  few  Turks  of  rare  attainments,  who  had 
never  been  spoiled  by  power  or  ambition,  or  the  in- 
trigues necessary  to  attain  to  greatness.  He  entertained 
a  high  opinion  of  the  morale  of  the  Turkish  peasantry : 
— in  short,  my  amiable  and  accomplished  friend  might 
be  called  a  Philo-Turk.  Yet  these  were  the  conclusions 
he  had  come  to  in  the  year  1847 : — "  Corruption  is  still 
a  heavy  clog.  • .  .It  is  an  evil,  moreover,  which  can  only 
be  slowly  eradicated ;  the  remedy,  too,  is  more  easily 


Chap.  XVI.  UNIVEKSAL  CORRUPTION.  4b 

indicated  than  applied.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  the  fountain-head  should  be  un- 
tainted— that  the  ministers,  from  whom  all  other  dig- 
nities and  appointments  flow,  should  be  themselves  men 
of  integrity;  next,  that  they  should  select  honest  go- 
vernors for  the  provinces ;  and,  thirdly,  that  these,  in 
their  turn,  should  choose  honest  men  for  local  and 
subordinate  functionaries.  Now,  here  already  is  the 
rub.  Where,  in  heaven's  name,  are  so  many  honest 
men  to  be  found  ?  At  Constantinople,  where  they  may 
be  easily  counted,  I  do  not  think  they  possibly  amount 
to  more  than  half  a  dozen ;  that  is  to  say,  honest  func- 
tionaries. As  for  men  of  untried  public  virtue,  there 
are  thousands,  to  be  sure,  who  desire  no  better  than  to 
have  it  put  to  the  proof;  and  by  these  the  Grand 
Yizier  is  pestered  night  and  day  for  places  and  appoint- 
ments. In  the  hope,  therefore,  of  bettering  the  public 
service,  he  has  extensively  employed  this  class  of  indi- 
viduals himself,  and  recommended  others  to  the  gover- 
nors of  provinces.  I  am  afraid,  however,  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  experiment  has  proved  a  failure,  and  that 
some  other  qualification  for  ofilce  besides  untried  in- 
tegrity will  generally  be  found  necessary.  To  make 
head  against  the  tide  of  corruption  requires  great  supe- 
riority of  character,  to  say  nothing  of  experience  in  the 
business  of  life.  Most  of  the  new  men  being,  I  suppose, 
deficient  in  both  these  respects,  have  found  it  easier  to 
go  with  than  against  the  stream,  while  the  more  reso- 
lute have  been  thrust  aside  as  impracticable."* 

^  Extract  from  a  letter  dated  Damascus,  March  2,  1847. 
This  letter  was  one  of  several  which  ap^ieared  in  London  in  the  *  Morn- 
ing Post '  during  our  friend's  extensive  tour  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  &c. 


46  TQBKBY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

Matters  are  not  mended  when  the  Porte,  of  its  own 
movement)  or  roused  by  the  petitions  of  the  suffering 
people,  or  impelled  by  the  strong  representations  of 
Christian  ambassadors,  despatches  some  great  man  or 
men  into  the  provinces  to  examine  into  the  grievances 
complained  of.  A  roving  commission  of  this  sort  is 
almost  invariably  turned  into  a  permission  to  plunder. 
Mustapha  Nouree  had  too  many  friends  among  the 
eunuchs  and  women  at  Constantinople,  and  was  alto- 
gether too  strongly  supported  to  be  subjected  to  any 
such  inquiry.  But  not  long  ago,  under  one  of  his  pre- 
decessors, a  commission  was  sent  over  to  Brusa.  There, 
in  a  cool,  comfortable  house  on  the  side  of  Olympus, 
the  commissioners  remained,  without  making  any  at- 
tempt to  see  things  with  their  own  eyes.  They  sent 
some  underlings  to  scour  the  country  and  extort  money ; 
they  summoned  a  few  of  the  heads  of  towns  and  villages 
to  their  august  presence,  and  got  more  money;  they 
bled  the  Pasha  and  his  Armenian  seraff,  they  obtained 
presents  from  the  head  men  of  the  Greeks,  Armenians, 
and  Jews ;  and  then,  returning  to  the  capital,  they  re^ 
ported  to  the  Grand  Vizier  that  the  pashalik  was  well 
governed  and  in  a  blessed  condition,  and  could  very 
well  bear  a  good  deal  more  taxation ! !  A  short  time 
previously  to  our  arrival  at  ^  Constantinople,  terrible 
complaints  having  by  some  means  reached  the  imperial 
ear.  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  despatched  a  confidential 
person  from  his  own  household,  one  Raghib  Agha,  to 
furnish  an  authentic  report  as  to  the  state  of  the 
pashaliks  of  Bagdad  and  Mosul.  After  making  a  tour 
of  these  provinces,  receiving  large  sums  by  way  of 
bribes  and  hush-money  from  the  pashas  and  others,  and 
extorting  presents  everywhere  from  the  famished  vil- 


Chap.  XVI.         PREVALENCE  OP  CORBUPTION.  47 

lagers,  he  returned  to  court,  aod  sent  in  a  report  con- 
taining a  glowing  account  of  the  prosperity  of  the  two 
provinces,  and  the  efficiency  and  virtue  of  their  gover- 
nors. It  was  confidently  asserted  in  Constantinople, 
and  by  parties  likely  to  be  well  informed,  that  Raghib 
Agba,  the  man  of  the  Sultan's  confidence,  had  made  by 
this  trip  a  sum  nearly  equivalent  to  15,000/.  staling. 
I  could  multiply  instances,  but  these  will  suffice. 

While  writing  this  chapter,  I  have  received  a  letter 
from  Brusa,  dated  di  the  end  of  March  of  this  present 
year  1849.  My  firiend  says — "  Mustapha  Nouree 
Fasha  still  keeps  his  post  I  think  it  high  time  he 
i^ould  be  off ;  but  whether  we  should  be  benefited  by  a 
change  is  uncertain.  Thet/  are  all  bad.  That  plun- 
dering Armenian,  Cabackji  Oglou,  still  reigns  supreme 
in  all  affairs  here.  He  is  really  too  bad.  The  Shoorah 
continues  its  iniquities.  I  hear  that  a  change  is  to  take 
place,  and  that  the  Forte  has  determined  to  send  three 
wise,  honest  men  to  overlook  our  Bnisa  Council.  Where 
will  Keshid  Fasha  find  administrative  wisdom  ?  Where 
does  'honesty  exist  in  this  unhappy,  fast  perishing 
country  ?  You  know  the  class  too  well  to  expect  any 
honesty  among  the  employes  of  government  If  these 
three  overseers  should  come,  we  shall  only  have  three 
more  himgry  mouths  to  fill.  A  Turk  said  to  me  the 
other  day — *  The  Fasha  did  always  leave  us  something, 
but  now  everything  we  have  will  be  devoured.*  Old 
ELhodja  Arab,  our  chief  of  the  police,  is  also  to  have  a 
supervisor,  and  high  time  is  it  that  his  tyrannical  pro- 
ceedings should  be  controlled.*    But,  in  all  probability, 

*  The  chief  of  the  police  was  now  taming  his  nnmerons  arreste  to  a  new 
kind  of  acooont. 

The  Pasha's  prison  had  become  dreadfully  pestiferous ;  the  gaol  fever 


48  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

the  supervisor  will  be  as  bad  as  the  Khodja,  and  so  the 
poor  people  of  Brusa  and  the  villagers  of  the  plain  will 
have  two  tyrants  instead  of  one.  You  wanted  them  to 
make  roads  and  bridges.  These  are  in  a  far  worse 
condition  than  when  you  left  us.  The  plain  is  all 
flooded  and  in  a  deplorable  state ;  nothing  under  the 
size  of  a  camel  can  get  through  the  mud  of  our  best 
road.  Some  300^.  sterling  have  been  spent  to  repair 
the  almost  useless  wooden  bridge  near  the  Turkish 
coffee-house  you  used  to  frequent  up  our  great  Dere  ; 
and  this  is  left  unfinished  for  want  of  funds. 

^^  This  has  been  a  job  nicely  managed  by  the  Pasha  and 
Cabackji  Oglou.     The  people  at  one  village  can  hardly 

was  spreading  in  the  town,  and  cholera  was  daily  expected.  Towards  the 
end  of  January  the  French  consul  waited  upon  the  Pasha,  spoke  to  him 
about  the  frightful  state  of  the  prison,  and  asked  his  Excellency  to  go  into 
it  with  him,  and  see  things  with  his  own  eyes.  Mustapha  Kouree  excused 
himself,  saying,  that  only  the  evening  before  he  had  ordered  the  prison  to 
be  swept  out  and  perfumed — U  VavaitfaU  halayer  ei  parfumer, 

"  It  is  nevertheless  true,"  said  M.  George  Crespin,  "  that  |the  prisoners 
are  still  heaped  one  upon  another,  and  that  some  of  them  are  everyday 
brought  out  dead  or  dying.  Will  the  government  at  Constantinople  oon> 
tinue  to  shut  its  eyes  to  such  horrors  ?" — Letter  fwm  the  French  Consul  at 
Brusa,  dated  January  24, 1848.  Later  in  the  season,  when  the  cholera  was 
committing  ravages  in  the  town,  the  Pasha  began  to  tremble  for  his  own 
safety,  and  a  new  scheme  was  adopted.  Instead  of  being  carried  to  prison 
Khodjii  Arab's  victims  were  carried  to  a  great  farm  he  had  acquired  in  the 
Bmsa  plain,  and  were  there  set  to  work  like  slaves,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
chief  of  the  police. 

My  other  Brusa  correspondent,  whose  letter  I  am  quoting  in  the  text, 
says : — **  Instead  of  being  sent  to  prison,  people  are  now  conducted  to 
Kliodjk  Arab's  estate,  and  are  there  taught  'agricultural  pursuits  and 
improvements '  gratis.  His  collection  of  labourers  is  composed  of  Turks, 
Greeks,  Armenians,  Jews,  the  poorest  of  Brusa.  Some  of  these  men  have 
changed  their  occupation  from  silk-weaving  to  ploughing ;  and  a  pretty 
business  they  make  of  it  1  All  stray  cattle  in  the  plain  are  immediately 
marked  with  the  Arab's  stamp,  not  much  thought  being  given  as  to  where 
they  may  come  from.  Thus  you  see  men  and  beasts  are  taken  up  for  the 
laudable  puipose  of  working  Kliodj^  Arab's  farm." 


Chap.  XVL       INCREASING  DISTRESS  AT  BRUSA.  49 

communicate  with  those  living  in  another  a  mile  or 
two  off.     The  Turkish  school  is  as  you  left  it     Ex- 
cept  in  ruin,  there  has  been  no  progress.     All  the 
town  is  now  ruins ;  tumbledown  houses  and  prostrate 
walls  meet  me  at  every  turn ;  and  as  tiie  snows  are 
melting,  and  no  care  taken  to  give  the  torrents  from 
the  mountain  a  proper  course,  our  sheets  are  all  like 
rapid  mill-streams.     As  my  Turkish  landlord  could  not 
afford  to  put  my  palace  in  repair,  I  was  driven  away  at 
the  approach  of  winter  by  the  fear  that  it  would  fall 
upon  me  and  bury  me  in  its  ruins.     I  took  refuge  in 
one  of  the  hot  baths  at  Tchekgirghe.    I  begin  to  believe 
that  life  in  one  of  your  Union  workhouses  must  be  better 
than  any  existence  in  this  naturally  rich  but  absolutely 
ruined  country.     There  is  no  trade  of  any  sort     The 
silk-works  are  all  stopped  and  bankrupt     Universal 
poverty  and  wretchedness  have  increased  since  your 
departure  from  Brusa  at  the  end  of  1847.     And  yet 
there  are  asses  among  the  Turks  who  are  talking  of 
going  to  war  with  the  Russians,  and  of  the  glory  and 
conquests  to  be    obtained.*      But  these  boasters  are 
few :  the  majority  of  the  Osmanlee  population  would 
not  care  a  cocoon  if  the  Russians  were  here  to-morrow 
— and  they  would  be  welcomed  by  the  Rayah  sub- 
jects." 

We  took  some  pains  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the 
state  of  education,  of  which  very  flaming  accounts  had 

*  It  is  to  be  bome  in  mind  that  this  yaponring,  which  was  much  loader 
at  Constantinople  than  at  Brusa,  was  exhibited  months  before  the  question 
of  the  extradition  of  Kossuth,  the  renegade  Bem,  and  their  numerous  and 
desperate  gangs. 

As  I  have  intimated  elsewhere,  the  Porte  assumed  a  hostile  bearing 
towards  Austria  and  Russia  as  early  as  the  summer  of  1848. 

I  VOL.  II.  E 


50  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

been  given  to  us  by  some  in  London  and  by  many 
persons  in  the  Turkish  capital. 

The  Armenians  had  of  late  been  making  great  exer- 
tions to  promote  education,  as  well  here  as  at  Constanti- 
nople and  Smyrna ;  but  their  efforts  at  Brusa  did  not 
appear  to  be  very  successful,  and  they  were  always 
changing  their  masters  and  complaining  that  good 
teachers  could  not  be  procured.  Though  they  had  ]ess 
money  to  spend,  the  Greeks  appeared  to  be  in  a  much 
better  way.  They  had  an  upper  school,  in  which  ancient 
Greek  was  well  taught  We  saw  there  45  pupils,  boys 
and  girls  mixed,  and  remarkably  intelligent  young 
people  all.  The  head  class  read  Homer,  the  second 
Licias,  the  third  Xenophon ;  the  fourth  read  short  ex- 
tracts in  easy  Greek.  The  modern  Greek  school  waa 
in  the  same  quarter  of  the  town,  and  was  preparatory  to 
this  high  school:  it  counted  135  pupils.  In  another 
quarter  there  was  another  ancient  Greek  school  and 
another  preparatory  one;  but,  as  yet,  the  number  of 
pupils  in  these  two  was  very  limited.  In  the  high 
school,  which  we  visited  on  the  9th  of  December,  we 
saw  the  beautiful  handwriting  of  some  of  the  little  girls. 
Two  girls  read  Homer  right  well.  The  school-rooms 
were  small ;  but  there  was  a  talk  of  building.  They 
had  desks  and  forms  like  English  scholars.  Their  hours 
of  study  were  the  same  as  in  our  common  English 
sctools.  They  came  at  9  a.m.,  and  went  out  and  hom^ 
to  dinner  at  12  ;  returned  at  2  p.m.,  and  remained  till  5. 
None  of  the  Greek  masters  were  priests !  The  master 
of  this  high  school,  a  very  intelligent  man,  came  from 
Caesarea.  There  was  a  small  but  good  library  attached, 
containing  Greek  classics,  and  modern  Greek  works  on 


y 


Chap.  XVI.  GREEK  SCHOOLS  AT  BRUSA.  51 

• 

history,  geography,  eto.  Some  of  these  children  were 
sent  to  a  French  master,  and  some  learned  to  read  and 
write  Turkish*  All  these  Greek  schools  were  supported 
by  the  churches ;  but  small  annual  presents  were  made 
to  the  masters  by  the  parents  of  the  pupils.  The 
Catholic  Armenians  had  no  school  in  Brusa — they  sent 
their  children  to  the  French,  in  which  there  were  two 
male  teachers  and  one  female.  The  Eutychean  Ar- 
menians, on  the  contrary,  had  two  schools.  That  which 
we  visited  on  the  9th  of  December  stands  by  the  chief 
Armenian  church,  and  is  extensive ;  at  least  it  had  one 
very  large  class-room.  There  were  317  boys  and  115 
girls,  but  separate,  and  not  mixed  like  the  Greeks. 
They  leam  Turkish,  Greek,  Armenian,  and  French, 
beginning  with  Armenian.  There  were  only  about  100 
boys  that  were  stodying  ancient  Greek,  and  they  had 
made  but  little  way  in  the  study.  This  class  was 
young  as  yet.  Church  music  was  taught  About  a 
dozen  boys  sung  to  us  a  psalm  in  Armenian,  and  then 
"  Peuple  Fran9ais,  Peuple  de  Braves.*'  This  showed 
the  character  and  politics  of  their  French  master. 
There  were  no  women :  an  old  man  teaches  the  girls  in 
a  separate  room.  Here  there  were  no  desks  and  forms. 
The  pupils  were  provided  with  little  cushions,  and 
squatted  on  the  ground  Orientelly.  All  the  move- 
ments, internal  and  external,  were  regulated  by  sound 
of  bell.  This  had  a  curious  effect.  It  set  me  thinking 
of  the  bell  of  the  President  of  the  National  Assembly 
which  makes  so  great  a  noise  in  the  history  of  the  first 
French  Revolution.  The  children  seemed  rather  lazy 
and  listless.  A  number  of  them  were  humming  their 
lessons  all  together,  like  young  Turks.     They  came  to 

e2 


52  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

church  and  school  at  sunrise,  and  they  stayed  till  near 
sunset ;  but  they  had  long  intervals  for  play  and  food. 
They  brought  their  victuals  with  them  in  queer  litde 
baskets,  of  which  we  saw  a  whole  regiment  by  the 
schoolroom  door*  The  education  was  gratis.  The 
school  was  endowed  in  connexion  with  the  church.  A 
good  many  legacies,  etc.,  were  left  them.  The  dis- 
cipline was  very  mild.  The  school*room  was  well 
warmed  with  a  stove.  We  saw  an  entire  translation  of 
Homer  in  Armenian  verse — a  recent  production.  Also 
an  old  translation  of  Milton's  *  Paradise  Lost,*  in  Ar- 
menian prose.  These  people  had  another  girls'  school 
at  Chatal  Chesm^  another  quarter  of  the  town.  There, 
a  woman  from  Constantinople  taught  reading  and  writing. 
She  had  about  70  pupils.  The  American  missionaries 
had  schools,  but  were  obliged  to  close  them  by  the 
bigotry  of  the  Greeks  as  well  as  Armenians. 

Months  before  we  left  Brusa  Omer  Bey  had  been 
appointed  director  of  the  unfinished  Turkish  school,  but 
he  had  never  come  over  from  Constantinople.  For  the 
miserable  sum  of  4000  piastres  the  school-building  was 
at  a  standstill.  A  few  old  khodjas  taught,  or  pretended 
to  teach,  reading  to  the  Turkish  children,  the  school- 
room being  generally  attached  to  some  inferior  mosque. 
The  once  splendid  medressehs,  or  colleges,  attached  to 
the  grand  mosques,  were  either  entirely  deserted  or  on 
the  point  of  being  so.  Most  of  them  were  in  ruins. 
In  those  few  where  some  softks  or  students  yet  lingered, 
in  spite  of  discouragement  and  poverty,  we  could  never 
see  any  professors  at  their  duty,  or  any  sign  of  study 
beyond  that  of  one  or  two  young  fellows  crouching  in  a 
corner  and  poring  over  a  large  MS.  Koran.     The  soflks 


Chap.  XVI.      POVERTY  OF  TURKISH  STUDENTS.  53 

were  about  the  raggedest  people  in  all  Bmsa,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  sourest  and  most  insolent.  All  that  they 
got  from  these  richly  endowed  medressehs  was  a  loaf  of 
bread  per  diem,  and  a  piece  of  matting  to  lie  upon.  I 
have  seen  very  poor  students  in  other  countries,  but 
never  such  scholastic  poverty  and  nakedness  as  here  I 
In  their  rooms  there  was  absolutely  nothing  but  the 
piece  of  matting,  a  rude  cushion  or  pillow,  and  an 
earthen  jug  for  water — to  serve  as  well  for  drink  as  for 
their  ablutions.  Generally  the  door  of  the  apartment 
was  falling  from  its  hinges,  and  the  casement  of  the 
window  broken  and  without  any  glass.  In  the  cold 
weather  the  students  go  to  their  homes  (if  they  have 
any),  or  huddle  together  in  one  room  for  the  sake  of 
warmth.  Sad  reports  of  their  immorality  were  current. 
The  total  amount  of  the  students  we  saw  in  the  whole 
city  fell  below  fifty.  It  is  evidently  the  intention  of 
government  to  starve  them  out  At  the  Bairam  and 
Gourban  Bairam,  some  devout  Mussulmans  of  the  town 
will  club  together  and  give  a  sheep  to  each  of  the  col- 
leges, in  order  that  the  students  may  make  their  sacri- 
fice and  feast  The  soflas  also  make  a  little  money, 
or  collect  donations  in  kind,  during  the  Ramazan,  when 
they  go  out  to  the  Turkish  villages  and  do  duty  at  the 
mosques  as  Imaums.  Yet  they  have  a  hard  struggle 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  for  it  is  most  rare  that 
they  have  any  private  fortune  or  means,  or  that  they 
belong  to  any  but  the  poorest  families.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  year  1846  Keshid  Pasha  took  a  good  many 
of  these  divinity  students  and  put  them  into  the  military 
and  naval  schools  at  Constantinople,  to  make  soldiers 
and  sailors  of  them. 


54  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

The  Mussulman  colleges  were  in  no  better  condition 
in  any  other  town  we  visited ;  and  Bishop  Southgate, 
in  his  very  extensive  tours,  found  them  everywhere 
neglected  and  dishonoured;  the  buildings  being  very 
mean  or  in  ruins,  the  students  being  few  in  number  and 
miserably  provided  with  teachers  and  means  of  instruc- 
tion. The  largest  of  the  medressehs  at  Tocat  contained 
only  sixteen  students.  One  of  these  had  performed  the 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  and  he  entertained  <^e  Bishop 
with  the  most  marvellous  stories  of  the  pilgrimage  and 
the  holy  city.  "  There  were,"  he  said,  "  exactly  70,000 
pilgrims  present  every  year.  The  city  itself  was  Ae 
centre  of  the  earth,  which  he  supposed,  in  common  with 
Mussulmans  generally,  to  be  a  great  plain.  The  days 
and  nights  were  always  equal  there,  and  the  temperature 
always  the  same.  This  last,  however,  he  thought  no 
great  recommendation,  as  when  he  was  there  it  was 
almost  too  hot  to  live.*** 

At  Bagdad,  which — 


<c 


in  the  golden  prime 


Of  the  good  Haroon  al  Baahid," 

so  abounded  in  seats  of  Oriental  learning,  the  medres- 
sehs had  been  treated  even  worse  than  the  mosques. 
This  pious  and  intrepid  American  traveller  could  not 
ascertain  the  exact  number  of  these  colleges,  but  he  was 
able  to  learn  something  in  respect  to  the  state  of  learn- 
ing in  them,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  were  con- 
ducted.    In  general,  each  college  at  Bagdad  had  only 

♦  •  Narrative  of  a  Visit  to  the  Syrian  (Jacobite)  Church  of  Mesopotamia ; 
with  Statements  and  Reflectionfl  upon  the  Present  State  of  Christianity  in 
Turkey,  and  the  Character  and  Prospecta  of  the  Eastern  Churches^'  New 
York,  1844. 


Chap.  XVI.       TURKISH  COLLEGES  AT  BAGDAD.  55 

one  professor,  who  had  the  whole  duty  of  government 
and  instruction.    He  received  his  salary  from  the  Pasha, 
and  devoted  such  time  to  the  duties  of  his  office  as  he 
pleased.     **  As  the  government  has  become  the  admi- 
nistrator of  the  revenue,  and  the  guardian  of  the  col- 
leges, **  says  Dr.  Southgate,  ^^  no  adequate  effort  is  made 
to  keep  the  ranks  of  the  professors  full,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, their  number  has  been  curtailed  and  their  salaries 
reduced.     There  is  no  regularity  or  system  in  the  disci- 
pline or  instruction  of  the  institutions.     A  lecture  is 
followed  by  four  or  five  days  of  idleness ;  and,  of  all  the 
professors  in  the  city,  not  more  than  six  are  competent 
to  instruct  in  the  higher  departments  of  Mussulman 
learning.     Formerly  the  students  were,  in  part  at  least, 
permanent  residents  in  the  medressehs,  and  received,  as 
is  common  in  other  parts  of  Turkey,  a  daily  allowance 
for  their  support    Now  the  allowance  is  withdrawn,  and 
of  course  their  number  is  greatly  reduced.    They  do  not 
reside  in  the  colleges,  and  a  great  part  of  them  are  not 
regular  in  their  attendance  upon  instruction.     Many  of 
them,  indeed,  have  other  trades  or  professions,  which 
they  leave  for  an  hour  to  hear  an  occasional  lecture. 
Such  a  state  of  things  cannot,  I  think,  find  its  parallel 
in  any  other  city  of  the  empire.     It  arises  doubtless,  in 
'the  present  instance,  from  the  illegal  usurpation  of  go- 
vernment, which  has  taken  the  administration  out  of 
the  proper  hands,  and  cares  for  little  but  to  appropriate 
to  its  own  use  as  much  of  the  revenues  as  it  can  find  any 
pretext  for  retaining."*     But  this  interesting  passage 
was  written  in  1838,  and  since  that  time  Reshid  Pasha 

*  '  Narrative  of  a  Tour  through  Armenia,  Kurdistan,  Persia,  and  Meso- 
potamia, 4S^c./  New  York,  1840. 


56  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

has  been  twice  Grand  Yizier,  and  what  is  called  the 
reform  system  has  been  driven  on  at  the  charging  pace ; 
and  that  "  state  of  things "  which  the  writer  witnessed 
at  Bagdad  finds  now  its  parallel  in  every  other  city  of 
Turkey.  Bishop  Southgate  himself,  in  his  second  jour- 
ney,  made  in  1841,  saw  good  evidence  of  the  rapid  and 
universal  declension;  and  my  other  much-esteemed 
friend^  Mr.  Longworth,  who  made  his  extensive  tour  in 
Asia  in  1846-79  ^^  everywhere  the  medressehs  in  the 
same  state  of  abandonment  or  utter  ruin  as  at  Brusa. 
Mr.  Layard  could  bring  down  the  history  of  the  "  de- 
cline and  fall "  in  the  Pashaliks  of  Bagdad  and  Mosul, 
and  in  all  the  coimtry  between  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the 
Euxine,  to  a  still  later  period. 

Tet  in  many  of  those  regions  the  fire  of  Mussulman 
fanaticism  burns  as  fiercely  as  ever,  and  but  too  often 
consumes  not  only  the  unhappy  Nestorians  who  dwell 
near  the  Kurds,  but  other  unoffending  defenceless 
Christians ;  and  great  Osmanlees  employed  by  the  re- 
forming government,  and  in  many  instances  promoted 
by  Reshid  Pasha,  do  not  hesitate,  even  in  the  presence 
of  Franks,  to  give  utterance  to  the  most  atrocious  senti- 
ments— to  a  deadly  hatred  of  all  Christian  Rayahs, 
simply  because  they  are  Christians.  Reshid  Pasha  was 
Grand  Vizier  at  the  end  of  1846,  when  Nazim  Effendi* 
was  sent  to  Mosul  to  examine  into  the  circumstances 
connected  with  Bedr-Khan-Bey*s  second  Nestorian  mas- 
sacre. This  Nazim  Effendi,  in  passing  through  Djezira, 
the  stronghold  of  the  Kurd,  had  several  firiendly  inter- 
views with  the  sanguinary  monster,  whose  crimes  it  was 
pretended  he  had  been  sent  to  investigate.  He  took 
large  sums  of  money  from  Bedr-Khan-Bey,  and  when 


Chap.  XVI.    MASSACRE  OF  NESTOBIAN  CHRISTIANS.  57 

he  reached  Mosul  he  would  hear  no  evidence  against 
the  butcher.  The  language  he  held  to  the  French  and 
English  consuls  on  the  subject  of  the  second  massacre  of 
the  Nestorian  Christians,  was  as  unreasonable  as  it  was 
insolent — as  false  as  it  was  savage.  Far  from  seeking 
to  deny  or  palliate  the  atrocious  circumstances  of  the 
massacre,  he  openly  justified  them,  and  said  that  the 
Nestorians  were  rebellious  infidek^  whom  it  was  the 
duty  of  all  good  Mussulmans  to  exterminate ;  and  when 
asked  what  provocation  had  been  given  by  those  poor 
Christians,  he  repeated  an  absurd  story  which  had  been 
trumped  up  by  Bedr-Khan-Bey  in  justification  of  the 
first  great  massacre  he  had  perpetrated  three  years  ago, 
and  in  which  10,000  of  the  Nestorians  had  perished. 
This  story  was,  that  some  emirs,  or  green-turbaned 
Turks,  who  had  settled  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Christians,  had  been  murdered  by  them.  There  was 
not  a  word  of  truth  even  in  the  original  statement 
Some  Mussulman  villagers  who  had  intruded  on  the 
territory  of  the  Nestorians  (as  the  fugitive  Circassians 
have  done  on  the  lands  of  the  Greeks  at  Lubat),  were, 
on  the  complaint  of  the  Christians,  removed  by  the 
Pasha  of  Mosul  to  another  part  of  the  country ;  and,  on 
their  retiring,  a  report  was  maliciously  got  up  that  the 
emirs  had  been  assassinated.  Upon  this  flimsy  founda- 
tion, Nazim  Efiendi  had  the  audacity  to  maintain  that 
Bedr-Khan-Bey  was  justified  in  his  indiscriminate  mas- 
sacre  of  2000  more  Christian  subjects  of  Sultan  Abdul 
Medjid. 

'^  Not  a  Mussulman  has  been  killed  by  the  Nes- 
torians,'' said  the  consuls :  *^  the  men  reported  to  be 
dead  are  living  and  in  good  health  not  &r  off;  but, 


58  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

even  admitting  that  assassinations  had  been  committed, 
ought  not  some  distinction  to  have  been  made  between 
the  innocent  and  the  guilty  ?  Ought  not  the  women 
and  children  of  the  Nestorians,  at  least,  to  have  been 
spared  ?  **  The  imperial  commissioner,  Nazim  Effendi, 
coolly  replied  that,  they  were  all  infidels — all  the  same 
dirt — ^and  were  doomed  therefore,  and  deservedly,  to 
the  same  fate. 

I  istate  these  particulars  on  the  authority  of  a  friend 
who  is  also  the  friend  of  Mr.  Layard,  and  who,  as 
well  as  that  enterprising  and  accomplished  gentleman, 
was  in  the  country  at  the  time  of  Nazim  Efiendi's 
visit  I  have  no  inclination  to  repeat  a  tale  of  horror 
which  has  been  so  strikingly  narrated  by  the  discoverer 
of  Nineveh,  and  Mr.  Layard's  statements  stand  in  no 
need  of  corroboration ;  but  it  may  be  of  importance  to 
revive  the  recollections  of  these  damning  recent  atroci- 
ties, and  to  remind  my  countrymen  of  the  blossoms  and 
fruits  which  have  grown  on  the  tree  of  Turkish  reform, 
and  of  the  utter  impossibility  there  is  of  counting,  for  a 
single  day,  upon  Mussulman  mercy,  moderation,  or 
justice. 

One  of  my  friend's  informants  at  Mosul  stated  that, 
when  the  chief  officers  of  Bedr-Khan-Bey  were  reposing 
themselves  after  the  labours  of  the  second  massacre, 
some  Kurds,  who  sought  to  obtain  favour  in  the  eyes  of 
their  chiefs,  brought  to  them,  as  slaves,  about  sixty  of 
the  most  beautiful  women  and  children  they  had  been 
able  to  find  in  the  Nestorian  villages ;  but  Tayar  Aghk, 
the  governor  of  Djezira,  exclaimed,  "  We  want  no 
more  slaves  for  the  GhiaoUr  ambassador  at  Stamboul 
to  set  at  liberty.    Slay  these  prisoners !    Kill  them  all  I" 


Chap.  XVI.    MASSACRE  OF  NESTORIAN  CHRISTIANS.  59 

The  Kurds  immediately  fell  upon  the  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  despatched  them  in  cold  blood.  Three  girls 
alone,  whose  beauty  seemed  to  have  made  a  too  favour- 
able impression  on  the  chiefs,  were  spared ;  but  it  was 
more  than  suspected  that  they  subsequently,  with  addi- 
tional circumstances  of  atrocity,  shared  the  same  late. 
Similar  scenes  took  place  in  other  parts  of  the  district 

On  the  return  of  those  who  had  escaped  the  &ry  of 
die  Kurds,  they  found  their  villages  literally  strewed 
with  dead  mutilated  bodies.  To  complete  the  misfor- 
tunes of  these  wretched  Christians,  they  had  scarcely 
ventured  to  return  to  their  ruined  houses  when  another 
Mussulman  monster  fell  upon  them  unawares,  and  put 
such  as  he  could  seize  to  excruciating  tortures,  to  com- 
pel them  to  confess  whether  they  had  concealed  property 
previously  to  the  late  incursion  of  Bedr-Khan-Bey. 
The  surviving  Nestorians  now  fled  into  Persia,  and 
their  beautifully-cultivated  district  is  a  desert  The 
Ghiaour  ambassador  to  whom  the  governor  of  Djezira 
alluded,  was  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  who,  by  his  humane 
and  active  interference,  had  secured  the  liberation  of 
some  of  the  Nestorians  who  had  been  made  slaves  at 
the  time  of  the  first  massacre.  Alas !  other  instances 
might  be  quoted  in  which  the  humanity  of  Sir  Stratford 
has  only  given  a  keener  edge  to  Turkish  cruelty.* 

These  events,  which  must  sound  like  horrible  fables 
in  the  ears  of  most  Englishmen,  took  place  quite 
recently — and  at  a  time  when  a  Turkish  Ambassador 
was  residing  in  London,  and  making  constant  declara- 

*  See,  for  one  example,  the  stoiy  of  the  Albanian  Christians  at  Phllladar. 
That  frightful  religloaa  persecution  was  an  immediate  effect  of  the  declara- 
tion of  religious  liberty  which  Sir  Stratford,  after  infinite  toil,  wrung  from 
tbePorte. 


60  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

tdons  that  the  reign  of  fanaticism  and  cruelty  was  over 
in  Turkey,  that  the  use  of  torture  was  for  ever  put 
down,  that  iuU  religious  liberty  had  been  established  on 
the  broadest  and  most  solid  base ;  that,  strong  in  his 
army  and  in  the  prompt  obedience  and  the  enthusiastic 
affection  of  all  classes  of  his  subjects,  Abdul  Medjid 
could  secure  everywhere  the  execution  of  his  humane 
ordonnances  and  admirable  laws ;  that  the  Sultan  pos- 
sessed in  Reshid  Pasha  the  most  enlightened,  philan- 
thropic, honest,  and  active  of  Ministers;  and  that  the 
reformed  Ottoman  Empire  ought  now  to  be  allowed  to 
take  a  foremost  place  among  the  civilized  nation  of  the 
world.     Yes  I 

In  1846,  when  the  salaried  journalists  of  Constanti- 
nople were  proclaiming  to  the  whole  world  that  Turkey 
was  now  a  well-governed  and  most  happy  country,  and 
when  hireling  writers  were  repeating  and  embellishing 
these  statements  in  some  of  the  newspapers  of  Paris  and 
Vienna,  and  other  places,  innocent  blood  was  flowing  like 
water  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  and  a  Christian  people 
was  suffering  every  indescribable  horror — ^was  under- 
going torture  and  extermination ! 

When,  through  the  reports  made  by  the  French  and 
English  consuls  to  their  several  ambassadors,  and  still 
more  through  the  accounts  sent  to  England  by  the  cor- 
respondents of  our  most  respectable  English  journals, 
the  tale  of  blood  and  horror  was  bruited,  liie  Porte  pre- 
tended that  the  Turks  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  mas- 
sacres ;  that  the  Sultan  and  his  government  deplored 
what  had  happened;  that  the  Osmanlees  would  have 
prevented  the  massacres  if  they  had  been  able,  but  that 
Bedr-Khan-Bey  and  his  Kurds  were  too  strong  to  be 


Chaf.  XVI.  GOVERNMENT  PATBONAGE  OF  THE  ASSASSINS.  6l 

controlled  even  by  the  government  Then  what  became 
of  that  loud  boast  about  the  Sultan's  regular  army? 
What  became  of  the  affirmations  about  obedience  and 
affection,  and  the  spread  and  firm  establishment  of  re- 
ligious toleration  and  general  civilization  ?  True,  Bedr- 
Khan-Bey  was  powerful,  and  was  not  to  be  subdued 
without  employing  a  regular  army  against  him;  but 
why  was  not  that  army  employed  after  the  first  mas- 
sacre, when,  in  1843,  10,000  Christians  perished  instead 
of  being  sent  into  the  field  after  the  second  massacre  in 
1847  ?  How  was  it  that  the  lying,  purctiased  report  of 
Nazim  Efiendi  found  favour  for  a  time  in  the  sight  of 
government?  How  was  it  that,  when  the  great  Kurd 
butcher  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Porte,  they  let  him  off 
with  gentle  banishment  in  the  beautifiil  island  of  Crete? 
How  was  it  that  many  of  his  adherents  were  taken  into 
the  employment  of  government,  and  that  many  fanatical 
Turks  who  had  favoured  the  monster's  enterprises  against 
the  Nestorians,  instead  of  attempting  to  thwart  them, 
were  continued  in  their  places  or  promoted  ? 

But  there  was  a  gigantic  falsehood  in  the  pleading  of 
the  Porte  that  the  Turks  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
massacres,  and  that  they  would  have  prevented  them  if 
they  had  been  able.  It  was  notorious  to  every  man  in 
the  country  that  the  green-turbaned  Turks  who  had 
been  dispossessed  of  the  lands  of  the  Nestorians,  to 
which  they  had  no  right,  contributed  in  a  great  degree 
to  the  first  massacre :  that  many  Turks  took  an  active 
part  in  both  the  massacres,  while  all  the  fanatics  of  that 
race  applauded  the  bloody  deeds  when  they  were  done ; 
that  the  majority  of  the  Turkish  population  in  that  pari 
of  the  empire  were  the  declared  enemies  of  toleration 


62  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

and  reform,  and  regarded  the  Kurdish  chief  as  their 
champion ;  and  that  Bcdr-Khan-Bey  was  moreover  sup- 
ported by  the  whole  strength  of  the  fanatical  party.  It 
was  more  than  saspected  that  he  had  favourers  and 
friends  in  Constantinople,  in  the  Sultan's  own  palace, 
in  some  of  the  departments  of  government !  And  at 
last,  when  the  Grand  Vizier  sent  an  army  against  the 
butcher,  it  was  not  on  account  of  his  butcheries^  hut  be-- 
cause  he  was  making  himself  the  head  of  a  great  party ^ 
and  raUying  round  his  standard^  in  the  mountains  of 
Kurdistan^  thousands  of  disaffected  Turks,  sworn  foes  to 
Reshid  Pasha  and  his  reform  system.  If  Bedr-Khan- 
Bey  had  not  been  a  political  enemy,  and  in  circum- 
stances to  become  a  very  formidable  one,  he  would 
never  have  been  seriously  molested  by  the  Porte. 

In  the  capital,  and  in  some  of  the  large  towns  near 
the  sea-coasts,  the  overthrow  of  religious  institutions, 
and  the  forced  introduction  of  Frank  usages,  is  evidently 
leading  to  a  total  indifference  about  any  kind  of  religion ; 
but  I  do  not  believe  that,  in  other  parts  of  the  coimtry, 
the  decay  of  Mussulman  learning  will  be  attended  by 
any  decline  of  Turkish  fanaticism.  I  believe,  on  the 
contrary,  that  this  fanaticism  will  become  coarser  and 
more  brutal —more  of  a  mere  animal  impulse.  Instead 
of  being  controlled  by  educated,  sedate,  and  decorous 
mollahs,  the  mobs  will  be  led  by  illiterate,  savage,  wan- 
dering dervishes,  who  scarcely  respect  any  texts  of  the 
Koran  except  those  which  inculcate  a  deadly  hatred  of 
all  who  are  not  Mussulmans. 

We  did  not  ascertain  the  precise  number  of  the 
dancing  or  whirling  dervishes  at  Brusa,  who  lived  to- 
gether in  their  teke  like  friars  in  a   Franciscan  mo- 


Chaf.  XVI.    DECREASING  POPULATION  AT  BRUSA,  63 

nastery,  and  who  seemed  to  be  not  only  well  lodged, 
but  comfortably  supplied  with  food  and  raiment.  In- 
cluding the  novices  and  the  serving-men,  I  should  think 
there  were  about  fifty  of  them ;  but  education  in  this 
house  seemed  to  be  strictly  confined  to  the  science  or 
art  of  twirling.  I  never  saw  a  student  doing  anything 
else.  When  he  could  spin  round  like  a  well-whipped 
whipping-top  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  without  being 
sick  or  giddy,  and  could  stop  suddenly,  and  stand  firm 
and  bolt  upright  at  the  clapping  of  the  sheik's  hands, 
his  education  was  considered  as  completed. 

Balbi  set  down  the  population  of  Brusa,  in  round 
numbers,  at  100,000.  I  much  doubt  whether  at  this 
moment  it  exceeds  60,000.  There  are  many  void 
spaces  within ;  and  on  the  edges  of  the  town,  towards 
the  plain  and  towarda»the  mountain,  and  at  the  east  end 
as  well  as  the  west,  whole  quarters  have  disappeared,  or 
have  left  nothing  behind  them  but  ruined  mosques, 
minarets,  and  baths.  Greeks,  Armenians,  and  Jews 
were  increasing ;  and  the  Turks  were  on  the  decrease  as 
well  in  the  town  as  in  the  villages  of  the  plain.  Al- 
though many  of  them  are  but  small  places,  the  united 
population  of  the  villages  must  make  a  good  round 
number.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  plain,  or  between 
the  Lake  of  Dudakli  and  the  Lufar  river,  we  counted 
thirty-three  villages,  and  visited  most  of  them ;  and  I 
should  think  that  there  were  twelve  more  villages  be- 
tween the  Lufar  and  the  sea  at  Moudania. 

Before  leaving  Brusa  for  our  old  quarters  in  the  farm 
at  Hadji  Haivat,  we  visited  a  remarkable  personage. 
While  staying  with  our  consul  at  the  Baths  of  Tchek- 
girgbe,  we  had  met  a  corpulent  good-natured  man,  ap- 


64  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

parently  about  forty  years  old,  who  was  introduced  to 
us  as  grandson  of  the  Emir  Beshir  of  the  Druses,  and 
ex-Prince  of  Mount  Lebanon,  but  who  was  not  other- 
wise very  noticeable.  In  one  of  our  many  rambles  up 
the  romantic  dere,  we  had  seen  an  aged  man  riding 
across  the  wooden  bridge  near  the  Turkish  coffee-house, 
followed  by  eight  or  ten  servants  and  a  Nubian  slave, 
all  mounted  on  wretched  hack  horses;  and  we  were 
then  told  that  it  was  the  Emir  Beshir  who  had  been  to 
pay  a  .visit  of  ceremony  to  Mustapha  Nouree  Pasha. 
The  overthrown  and  exiled  prince  was  then  residing  in 
a  large  shabby  house  high  up  the  side  of  Olympus, 
nearly  on  a  level  with  the  deserted  kiosk  the  Turks  had 
built  for  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid.  I  was  curious  to  see 
this  fallen  ruler  of  a  mysterious  people,  and  to  hear  his 
own  version  of  his  unhappy  history.     One  day,  at  the 

end  of  November,  Madame  S and  her  daughters, 

who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  the  Emir  and  his 
wife,  very  kindly,  took  us  to  his  new  abode  in  the 
town  of  Brusa.  He  had  just  descended  from  his  ele- 
vated and  cold  quarters  on  the  mountain  to  this  new  re- 
sidence, which  was  spacious,  but  half  in  ruins.  Masons, 
plasterers,  and  carpenters  were  rather  busily  at  work, 
putting  the  house  into  some  order.  The  Emir  received 
us  in  a  small  dingy  room.  He  was  the  most  venerable- 
looking  man  I  ever  beheld :  his  beard  was  snow-white, 
and  thick  and  long ;  his  eyebrows  were  of  the  colour 
of  his  hair ;  his  face  was  wrinkled  all  over,  but  his  eye 
was  bright  and  keen.  He  was  then  eighty-three  years 
old.  He  was  dressed  like  a  Turkish  gentleman  of  the 
old  school — wearing,  however,  the  red  fez  without  any 
turban.     His  dress  and  person  were  exemplarily  clean 


^■•»    <■  ■  •»  •'^^m^^^t^H^^v'-ymmfmmm  »  ii^v  ■     ■      n  i|ii 


Chip.  XVL    THE  EMIR  BESHIB  OP  THE  DRUSES.  65 

and  neat.  Fallen  as  he  was,  there  was  an  unmistake- 
able  air  of  dignity  and  command  about  him.  His  at- 
tendants waited  upon  him  with  as  much  respect  and 
ceremony  as  the  servants  of  a  great  pasha  display  in 
the  presence  of  their  lord  and  master.  He  could  speak 
no  language  except  Arabic ;  but  he  bad  a  Roman  Ca-* 
tholic  priest  in  his  household  who  had  lived  in  Italy, 
and  who  spoke  French  tolerably  well,  and  Italian  per- 
fectly. The' priest  acted  as  our  drogoman.  At  first 
the  old  Emir  was  very  guarded  in  his  expressions,  but 
he  soon  grew  warm,  and  violently  abused  Mr.  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦, 
now  our  consul  at  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦,  and  our  consul-general  of 
\*  *  ♦,  charging  these  two  with  having  betrayed  him, 
and  as  being  the  chief  cause  of  all  his  troubles.  He 
was  most  violent  against  Mr.  ♦  ♦  ♦  ♦.  He  said  .that 
Colonel  *♦♦  *  was  a  British  officer  that  knew  noming 
of  the  country  or  the  language ;  that  Mr.  *  ♦  ♦  ♦  was  the 
son  of  an  English  Jew,  formerly  a  drogoman  at  Con- 
stantinople; that  he  was  no  Englishman,  but  a  true 
Levantine,  having  been  born  of  a  native  Perote  woman; 
that  he  (Mr.  ♦  *  *)  knew  the  country,  and  spoke  Arabic 
and  Turkish,  and  knew  all  the  people  and  all  the  arts 
of  Levantine  intrigue;  that  he  had  misinformed  and 
misled  Colonel  *  *  ♦,  who  depended  almost  entirely 
upon  him  for  the  information  upon  which  he  had  acted. 
*^  But  for  that  Constantinopolitan  son  of  the  London 
Israelite,"  said  the  Emir,  whose  face  reddened  as  he 
spoke,  "  Colonel  *  ♦  ♦  would  have  acted  with  the  good 
faith  of  an  English  gentleman."* 

They  did  not  mince  matters :  both  the  Emir  and  the 
priest — both  the  grandson  we  had  met  at  Tchekgirghe  and 
another  member  of  the  family — declared  that  our  consul 

VOL.  IT.  F 


66  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

of  *  *  *  *  had  been  unduly  influenced,  as  well  by  some 
of  the  Turkish  officers  as  by  the  Emir's  enemies  in  the 
country,  and  that  to  their  certain  knowledge 

I  can  only  answer  for  the  correctness  of  the  state- 
ments as  to  Mr.  *  *  *  's  birth  and  parentage.  I  can 
only  add,  from  my  own  impressions  and  convictions, 
that  no  born  and  bred  Perote,  whether  of  the  drogoman 
class  or  any  other,  ought  ever  to  be  allowed  to  repre- 
sent Great  Britain  in  any  capacity  whatsoever.  The 
more  fluent  he  is  in  the  languages,  the  more  facile  will 
he  be  in  intrigue.  Of  Lieut  Colonel  Napier,  who 
distinguished  himself  in  the  strange  Syrian  campaign  of 
1840-1,  all  present  spoke  with  the  greatest  respect, 
only  regretting  that  the  gallant,  open-hearted  officer 
had  been  ignorant  of  Arabic  and  Turkish,  and  thus 
obliged  to  receive  information  and  conduct  negotiations 
through  the  faithless  medium  of  drogomans.  "  Colonel 
Napier,"  said  the  Emir  with  much  emotion,  "  woTild 
never  have  played  the  false  part !  If  my  fate  had  de- 
pended on  that  man  of  truth  and  honour,  I  should  be 
in  my  palace  on  Mount  Lebanon,  and  not  in  this  Tur- 
kish den,  and  in  the  poor  state  in  which  you  see  me." 

They  maintained  that  the  Emir  was  to  a  great  ex- 
tent an  independent  prince,  and  that  he  had  never  been 
in  rebellion  against  the  Sultan;  that  the  Forte  had 
driven  him  into  perilous  enterprises,  and  had  then  aban- 
doned him  to  those  whose  enmity  he  had  provoked  by 
their  command;  that  in  the  year  1834  they  had  ex- 
cited him  and  his  subjects  the  Druses  to  join  in  the 
insurrection  against  Mehemet  Ali,  the  Pasha  of  Egypt, 
and  that,  on  that  luckless  occasion,  being  left  without 
the  support  the  Turks  had  promised  him,  he  had  been 


Chulp.  XVI.    THE  EMIR  BESHIR  OP  THE  DRUSES.  67 

defeated  by  Ibrahim  Pasha,  and  compelled  to  submit 
to  the  Egyptian  rule;  that  in  1840,  when  the  four 
great  powers,  England,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia, 
resolved  that  the  whole  of  Syria  and  Palestine  should 
be  restored  by  force  of  arms  to  the  young  Sultan,  he 
had  been  visited  by  English  as  well  as  by  Turkish 
agents,  and  by  them  impelled  to  rise  again  against  the 
Egyptians ;  that  he  and  his  faithful  Druses  had  joined 
the  general  movement,  and  Tbad  rendered  all  the  ser- 
vices they  were  able ;  and  that  if  the  Emir  had  pre- 
viously submitted  for  years  to  Ibrahim  Pasha,  it  had 
only  been  because  he  could  not  resist  him,  and  because 
the  Porte  did  nothing  for  him,  and  would  never  have 
been  able  to  regain  possession  of  Syria  if  the  allied 
powers  had  not  aided  them  with  money,  ships,  and  troops. 
They  urged  that  in  going  against  him  the  English 
had  gone  against  their  best  and  only  friends ;  that  the 
Druses,  who  form  about  one-third  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  Lebanon,  had  been  devotedly  attached  to  the 
English,  while  of  the  other  two-thirds,  the  Maronites 
were  devoted  to  France  and  the  Greek  Christians  to 
Bussia.  This  is  certainly  in  accordance  with  the  Pal- 
merstonian  policy :  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  world 
our  incomprehensible  Foreign  Secretary  has  wronged 
or  insulted  our  friends,  and  given  protection  and  encou- 
ragement to  our  enemies.  The  Druses  are  by  far  the 
most  warlike  people  in  the  country,  and  the  day  may 
not  be  very  distant  when  we  shall  have  to  deplore  the 
policy  which  could  convert  them  from  friends  into 
bitter  foes. 

England  had  certainly  no  interest  in  overthrowing 
the  dynasty  of  the   Emir  Beshir,  which  had  existed 

f2 


68  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

from  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  and  had  ruled  in  Mount 
Lebanon  two  centuries  before  Osman  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Ottoman  Empire  at  Brusa ;  but  the  exist- 
ence of  the  quasi-independent,  tributary  state  was 
odious  in  the  eyes  of  the  Turks  of  the  new  school,  and 
an  anomaly  in  their  levelling  system ;  and  the  Porte 
and  its  diplomatic  agents  succeeded  in  persuading  some 
Englishmen  that  the  old  Emir  Beshir  had  always  been 
and  ever  would  be  a  disobedient  and  dangerous  vassal 
of  the  Sultan,  and  that  the  Lebanon  could  not  be  pro- 
perly governed  unless  he  and  every  member  of  his 
family  were  can*ied  off,  and  the  country  placed  under 
the  rule  of  a  Pasha  nominated  by  the  Porte.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Emir  Mr.  *  *  *  *  was  the  chief  expounder 
of  these  Turkish  opinions,  and  it  was  through  his  ill 
offices  that  Colonel  *  *  *  *  and  others  were  led  to  re- 
port the  existence  of  his  ancient  dynasty  as  incom- 
patible with  the  tranquillity  of  all  that  portion  of  Abdul 
Medjid's  dominions. 

*'  I  was  a  free  man  in  my  mountains,  surrounded  by 
my  faithful  and  brave  people,*'  said  the  Emir,  "  and 
none  would  have  brought  me  from  them  by  force ; 
neither  Turks  nor  Egyptians,  neither  English  nor  Aus- 
trians  would  at  that  moment  have  dared  to  march  into 
my  country.  I  was  deceived,  cajoled,  and  entrapped 
by  English  agents  I  Shame  upon  England!  I  went 
voluntarily  down  to  the  coast,  and  on  board  an  English 
man-of-war,  and  then  I  found  that  I  was  a  prisoner  I 
The  only  direct  charge  ever  brought  against  me  by 
Mr.  drogoman  *  *  *  *  was  that  I  had  offered  a  large 
sum  of  money  to  tempt  a  bravo  to  assassinate  him.  A 
lie  and  nonsense !     Dirt !     Little  Mr.  ♦  ♦  *  ♦  was  not 


Chap.  XVI.    THE  EMIR  BESHIR  OF  THE  DRUSES.  69 

the  English  government  or  Lord  Palmerston.  Of 
what  use  would  his  death  have  been  to  me  ?  He  was 
then  only  a  little  drogoman  and  go-between :  he  was  too 
insignificant  for  my  revenge :  your  government  made  him 
a  consul  aflerwards  as  a  reward  for  what  he  had  done. 
If  I  had  wanted  his  death,  half  a  piastre  (a  penny)  to  buy 
a  charge  of  powder  and  a  bullet  would  have  been  enough !" 

"  Well,"  continued  the  aged  chief,  "  the  Turks  have 
had  their  way ;  I  and  all  my  family  are  their  captives ; 
but  what  have  they  gained  by  it  ?  They  have  turned 
my  fair  palace  into  a  barrack,  and  have  stabled  their 
horses  in  my  kiosks ;  they  have  destroyed  or  carried 
off  all  the  things  which  were  mine ;  but  can  they  call 
Mount  Lebanon  their  own?  Are  they  safe  outside 
their  walls  ?  Has  the  country  been  quiet  a  single  day 
since  they  tore  me  from  it?  No  I  the  Sultan  cannot 
collect  a  single  tax  or  any  money  in  it.  I  paid  my 
tribute  regularly,  and  could  do  it  and  support  my 
state  as  a  prince  without  distressing  my  people.  My 
faithful,  affectionate  people  I  they  demand  me  back,  or 
demand  that  a  son  or  grandson  of  mine  should  be  sent 
to  rule  over  them.  They  vow  they  will  not  submit  to 
any  other  ruler — and  they  never  will  I  Let  those  who 
betrayed  me  secure  my  liberation.  Let  the  Sultan 
send  me  back  to  my  native  mountains  to  die  in  peace 
and  find  a  grave  among  my  ancestors,  and  let  my 
family  go  with  me,  and  you  will  soon  hear  no  more  of 
this  anarchy  and  bloodshed  in  Lebanon." 

The  priest  said  that  in  some  respects  this  Mount 
Olympus  recalled  the  memory  of  Mount  Lebanon. 
The  Emir  allowed  that  it  did  \  "  but,"  said  he,  "  where 
are  the  cedars  ?  where  are  my  good  people  ? " 


70  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVI. 

They  had  been  carried  from  the  coast  of  Syria  to 
Malta,  where  they  remained  about  eleven  months,  and 
were  very  kmdly  treated  by  the  English  authorities 
and  by  every  one  else.  At  the  end  of  that  period  they 
were  told  that  they  must  go  to  Constantinople  and  con- 
fide in  the  magnanimity  and  generosity  of  die  Sultan. 
They  arrived  at  the  Turkish  capital  eight  days  before 
the  departure  of  our  ambassador,  Lord  Ponsonby,  who 
had  sent  Mr.  ♦  *  *  *  into  Syria,  and  who  (under  false 
impressions,  as  they  believe)  had  concurred  in  the  ex- 
.  pulsion  or  capture  of  the  Emir.  They  made  repeated 
efforts  to  see  his  Lordship,  but  never  could  succeed. 
This  also  they  attributed  entirely  to  Mr.  ♦  *  ♦  *^  who 
threatened  the  priest  with  serious  consequences  if  he 
persisted  in  going  to  the  ambassador's  house.  I  tell 
the  tale  as  it  was  told  to  me.  I  never  had  the 
means  of  substantiating  the  details,  or  of  testing  the 
veracity  of  the  priest  and  the  Emir  and  the  Emir's 
grandson;  but  persons  who  had  had  better  opportu- 
nities, and  upon  whose  judgment  I  place  confidence, 
believed  every  part  of  the  narrative.  The  priest,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner,  repeated  to  me  more  than  once 
that  Mr.  ♦  ♦  *  *  had  so  threatened  him ;  and  he  attri- 
buted his  conduct  to  his  dread  of  the  truth  being  made 
known  to  his  master.  The  invisible  ambassador  (too 
often  invisible  to  others  who  had  business  with  him) 
went  away,  and  the  Emir  and  his  people  remained  four 
years  in  Constantinople  or  in  its  immediate  neighbour- 
hood. They  were  then  suddenly  told  that  the  presence 
of  the  old  man  in  that  capital  was  very  dangerous  to 
government,  and  that  he  and  his  sons  and  all  his  family 
must  instantly  remove  to  a  place  in  the  interior  of  Asia 


Chap.  XVI.    THE  EMIR  BESHIR  OF  THE  DRUSES.  71 

Minor,  in  the  direction  of  Erzeroum.  The  Emir  de- 
murred  and  protested.  Some  servants  of  the  Porte 
had  the  brutality  to  tell  the  octogenarian  that  they 
would  drag  him  by  his  white  beard. 

They  were  hurried  across  the  Bosphorus  and  sent  by 
land  to  the  appointed  place  of  exile.  I  forgot  to  take 
a  note  of  the  name  of  the  town,  but  it  was  a  cold, 
bleak,  dreary,  poverty-stricken  place,  where  no  meat 
was  to  be  procured  except  the  flesh  of  camels  and  goats. 
The  fatigues  of  that  terrible  land  journey  nearly  killed 
the  Emir,  and  his  eldest  son  died  soon  after  the  journey 
was  over.  This  cruel  removal  took  place  while  Riza 
Pasha  was  Grand  Vizier.  On  the  accession  of  his 
rival  and  mortal  enemy,  Reshid  Pasha,  they  were  re- 
moved from  that  horrible  place,  and  finally  brought  to 
Brusa.  Here  the  Emir  was  allowed  10,000  piastres 
a  month,  and  hitherto  this  allowance  had  been  regularly 
paid.  Including  women  and  children  there  were  fifty 
persons  living  with  the  Emir. 

There  seemed  to  be  a  curious  intermixture  of  reli- 
gions. The  Padre  was  strictly  an  orthodox  Roman 
Catholic  priest;  the  Emir,  who  in  the  Lebanon  had 
ruled  over  Christians  as  well  as  Druses,  was  said  to  be 
half  Druse,  half  Christrian,  and  of  his  people  now  with 
him  some  were  Christians  of  a  sort,  some  Mussulmans, 
and  some  strict  Druses.  I  had  no  opportunity  of 
making  inquiries  about  this  last  mysterious  sect  and  its 
tenets  and  rites:  I  only  remember  that  the  Emir's 
grandson  told  us  that  the  Druses  worshipped  the  image 
of  a  cal^  which  was  always  inclosed  in  an  ark. 


72  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVU. 


CHAPTER  XVn. 

Hadji  Haivat  —  A  Scene  by  the  rained  Khan  —  Beautiful  Weather  in 
December  —  Wolves  and  Jackals  —  Turkish  Resignation  —  Winter 
Nights  —  Journey  to  Moudania  —  State  of  the  Boads  —  Deceptions 
practised  upon  the  Sultan  —  Missopolis  —  Signer  Gall^  —  No  Law,  no 
Justice  —  False  Witnesses  —  The  Tanzimaut  —  Foreign  Protection  to 
Bayahs  —  A  Russianized  Armenian  —  Town  of  Moudania  —  Destruction 
of  Fruit-trees,  &c.  —  Taxes  and  cramped  Trade  —  Trade  —  A  Melan- 
choly Frenchman  —  Town  of  Psyche  —  Miraculous  Church  —  Insanity 
cured  —  Sale  of  Tapers  —  Ignorance  and  Venality  of  the  Greek  and 
Armenian  Clergy  —  Growth  of  Infidelity  —  Farming  the  Revenue  — 
Effects  of  this  system  —  Armenian  Usury  —  Ruins  of  the  ancient 
Apamea. 

Besides  the  farm-house  in  which  we  lived,  there  were 
only  six  inhabited  houses  in  the  decayed  hamlet  of  Hadji 
Haivat,  and  of  these  five  were  mere  hovels,  occupied  by 
very  poor  Turks.  The  sixth  house,  which,  like  Tche- 
lebee  John's,  was  detached,  and  at  some  short  distance 
from  the  rest,  was  a  large  farm-house,  occupied  by  a 
Greek,  who  had  been  unfortunate  in  business  as  a  mer- 
chant, and  had  turned  farmer,  recluse,  and  philosopher, 
out  of  necessity.  He  held  some  hundreds  of  acres  of 
fine  land,  which  was  but  indifferently  cultivated.  His 
house  was  of  wood,  and  falling  fast  to  ruin.  He  and  his 
wife  had  retreated  fi*om  one  apartment  after  another, 
and  were  now  dwelling  in  a  dingy  comer  of  the  totter* 
ing  edifice.  It  was  not  a  house  to  go  to  on  a  windy 
day;  and  at  night  the  spot  Wks  especially  to  be  avoided, 
for  it  w.as  sadly  haunted  by  the  murdered  Arab,  who 


Chap.  XVn.  HAMLET  OF  HADJI-HAIVAT.  73 

had  been  eaten  by  the  hysBnas,  but  Who  yet  walked 
about  with  his  head  under  his  arm.  In  one  of  the  court- 
yards of  the  house  there  were  two  of  those  very  beautiful 
and  peculiar  weeping-willows  to  which  I  have  before 
alluded.  They  must  grow  rapidly,  for  they  were  very 
tall  tree^  and  John  Zohrab  had  planted  them  with  his 
own  hands  not  above  seven  or  eight  years  ago.  Their 
foliage  fell  in  large  and  somewhat  regular  tresses,  look- 
ing at  a  distance  Hke  plumes  of  green  feathers.  They 
would  be  a  great  addition  to  our  ornamental  trees,  and 
I  should  think  that  they  would  thrive  in  many  parts  of 
England. 

Except  an  old  hag  (Khodja  Arab's  protegee),  who 
could  not  keep  her  hands  from  picking  and  stealing,  the 
Hadji  Haivat  Mussulmans  were  honest,  quiet,  inoffen- 
sive people,  but  very  deficient  in  industry  and  agri- 
cultural skill.  They  looked  up  to  our  tchelebee  as 
their  aghk,  coming  to  consult  him  in  all  their  difficulties, 
and  almost  invariably  referring  their  little  differences  to 
his  friendly  arbitration.  Between  the  hamlet  and  the 
high  road  there  was  a  broad,  uncultivated  space,  where 
grew  some  pleasant  trees,  and  where  the  foundations  of 
spacious  houses  and  other  buildings,  very  different  from 
those  which  now  exist,  could  be  traced.  At  the  southern 
edge  of  this  space,  a  few  yards  from  the  road,  stood 
the  grim  ruins  of  the  khan,  flanked  on  the  east  by  the 
cemetery  and  its  few  tall  cypresses.  The  home  of  the 
dead  came  close  upon  the  high  road.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  way  there  was  a  Turkish  fountain,  built  of 
stone,  which  had  ouce  been  very  neat  and  elegant,  but 
which  was  now  dilapidated,  like  everything  else  at  Hadji 
Haivat.   But  the  pipes  were  not  yet  broken ;  the  brightest 


74  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVII. 

and  purest  water  of  Olympus  still  gushed  forth  there, 
and  was  >caught  in  an  oblong,  square  trough,  made  of 
coarse  marble ;  and  in  the  hot  weather  it  was  rare  for 
either  man  or  beast  to  pass  it  without  stopping  to  drink. 
The  fountain  recalled  to  my  memory  those  which  the 
Moors  left  behind  them  in  such  abundance  by  the  thirsty 
road-sides  in  Andalusia  and  other  parts  of  Spain.  It 
was  shaded  by  cool,  broad-leaved  chesnut-trees  of  mag- 
nificent growth.  Behind  the  fountain  was  a  strip  of 
woodland,  mostly  of  the  same  trees  ;  behind,  and  above 
these  chesnuts,  on  a  spur  of  the  mountain,  were  bos« 
quets  of  the  evergreen  ilex,  and  then,  up  towered  Olym- 
pus, in  all  his  majesty,  wearing  a  crown  of  pine-trees  on 
his  head.  Seen  dirough  the  purple  atmosphere  of  noon 
the  mountain  seemed  but  a  few  feet  in  the  rear  of  the 
fount  Under  all  lights,  and  at  all  times,  when  there 
is  light  to  see,  that  spot,  by  the  old  khan  of  Hadji 
Haivat,  is  one  of  the  most  lovely  and  romantic,  and 
eminently  picturesque,  that  eye  or  heart  can  desire. 
But  now  that  the  chesnut-trees  were  bare,  and  that  the 
wintry  winds  began  to  howl  from  the  mountain,  it  was 
an  awful  ghostly  place  to  linger  at  in  the  dusk  of  the 
evening,  or  to  pass  by  moonlight. 

The  poor  squirrels  in  the  chesnut-wood  had  all  made 
up  their  beds,  and  were  taking  their  winter  nap.  Not 
one  of  them  was  to  be  seen  in  the  woodlands  where  they 
had  so  swarmed  a  few  weeks  before.  Much  did  I  miss 
them  and  their  gambols  as  I  walked  through  those 
glades.  With  few  and  brief  interruptions,  the  weather 
continued  mild,  balmy,  and  beautiful,  until  the  20th  of 
December.  There  were  some  days  when  the  sun  was 
quite  hot  from  the  hour  of  noon  till  3  p.m.,  and  the 


Chap.  XVII.  TURKISH  RESIGNATION.  75 

glorious  blue  sky  without  a  cloud  or  streak.  But  then 
we  had  our  Qool  evenings  and  cold  nights :  and,  slowly, 
the  snow  came  lower  and  lower  down  the  majestic  flank 
of  old  Olympus.  On  the  cold  nights  it  seemed  that  the 
wolves  and  jackals  were  hungrier  than  usual,  or  that 
the  sharp  dry  air  was  a  better  medium  for  the  transmis- 
sion of  sound :  we  heard  them  on  the  mountain  side, 
and  yelling  across  the  plain,  the  concert  being  completed 
by  those  dismal  vocalists  the  owls  and  cucuvajas.  Yet 
we  found  this  good  music  to  go  to  sleep  to.  In  the 
daytime  the  place  was  lone  enough;  but  there  were 
the  resoiurces  of  shooting  and  walking  about;  of  read- 
ing, writing,  and  thinking;  and  now  and  then  brave 
Ibrahim  of  Dudakli  dropped  in  upon  us,  or  merry  Halil 
rode  across  the  plain  to  see  us ;  or  the  French  consul, 

or  our  friend  R.  T ^  came  out  from  Brusa.     Also 

our  neighbour,  the  bankrupt  merchant  and  philosophical 
chiftlikjee,  paid  us  a  visit;  and  an  old  Turk,  the 
nominal  odk  bashi  and  head  of  the  hamlet,  came  in 
rather  frequently.  Poor  old  fellow !  He  had  once  been 
a  prosperous  man,  with  sons  to  till  his  grounds,  or  work 
for  him  or  with  him ;  but  plague  had  smitten  his  roof- 
tree,  and  other  diseases  had  crossed  his  threshold ;  he 
had  buried  two  wives  and  ten  children  in  the  cemetery 
hard  by — every  day  he  passed  their  graves — and  now, 
in  his  old  age,  he  was  left  alone  in  the  world,  in  abject 
poverty.  Our  friend  and  host  had  helped  him  through 
two  hard  winters,  and  would  not  see  him  starve  in  this. 
The  old  man  submitted  to  his  kismet  with  truly  wonder- 
ful placidity.  I  never  heard  him  utter  a  complaint  or 
murmur,  and  he  seemed  always  happy  when  we  gave 
him  a  pipe  to  smoke. 


76  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVII. 

We  got  through  the  long  wintry  evenings  very  well. 
There  was  no  lack  of  wood  for  firing ;  and. in  one  of  the 
tchelebee's  rooms — which  had  other  comforts— there 
was  a  good  chimney  and  fire-place,  on  the  hearth  of 
which  the  pine  and  oak  and  chesnut  of  Olympus  burned 
and  crackled  and  blazed  right  cheerfully. 

We  made  a  little  journey  to  Moudania,  the  nearest 
seaport  on  the  gulf,  a  few  miles  to  the  west  of  Ghio.  On 
Saturday  the  llthof  December,  at  11  A.M.,  we  mounted 
for  this  excursion.  A  little  way  beyond  the  bridges, 
across  the  Lufar,  we  quitted  the  road  or  track  which  we 
had  followed  in  going  to  the  Lake  of  Apollonia,  bearing 
a  little  to  the  right,  or  to  the  north.  After  crossing 
some  marshy  ground  we  came  upon  some  good  corn- 
lands,  a  few  acres  of  which  had  borne  crops  this  year. 
We  left  on  our  right  hand  what  had  been  a  very  large 
Turkish  farm-house,  but  what  was  now  an  abandoned 
ruin.  At  about  2  p.m.  we  found,  on  the  ridge  of  a 
gentle  hill,  a  large  chiftlik,  with  extensive  barns  and 
outhouses,  belonging  to  a  Greek  Rayah,  who  had 
recently  turned  his  attention  to  agricultural  pursuits, 
and  had  invested  in  them  a  capital  which  almost 
amounted  to  lOOOZ.  sterling!  Unluckily  the  Greek 
was  not  at  home.  Externally  his  house,  which  was 
large,  wore  a  very  respectable  appearance  for  a  farm- 
house in  Turkey ;  and  his  outhouses,  though  slovenly 
enough,  were  models  of  neatness  for  the  Fashalik  of 
Brusa.  In  the  rear  of  this  farm  is  a  very  small  hamlet 
called  Emikler,  and  exhibiting  little  but  ruins.  Half  an 
hour  farther  on  we  forded  the  Lufar,  having  the  water 
to  our  saddle-flaps.  There  is  a  rude  bridge  lower 
down  the  stream,  which  must  be  used  when  the  river  is 


Chap.  XVII.  STATE  OF  THE  EOADS.  77 

swollen.  In  certain  seasons  the  river  cannot  be  crossed 
at  all ;  and  the  road  to  Moudania  remains  for  weeks 
"  broke  off  in  the  middje."  About  half  an  hour  beyond 
the  river,  in  a  charming  green  valley,  we  came  to  a 
Turkish  village,  where  an  immense  chiftlik  was  falling 
to  pieces.  We  crossed  another  ridge  of  hills  and  then 
entered  into  a  crooked  valley,  which  opened  upon  the 
gulf  of  Moudania.  We  met  nobody :  we  had  the  road 
entirely  to  ourselves — and  a  very  bad  road  it  was. 
From  Brusa  to  this,  her  nearest  seaport,  Moudania,  the 
distance  is  scarcely  more  than  sixteen  English  miles  ;  and 
as,  for  a  good  part  of  the  way,  it  runs  over  level  ground, 
and  as  the  intervening  hills  are  of  gentle  ascent,  and  of  no 
height,  and  as  the  best  materials  for  road-making  abound, 
it  would  be  exceedingly  easy  to  make  an  excellent  road. 
When  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  travelled  this  way  on 
his  journey  to  and  firom  Brusa,  they  made  him  believe 
that  the  road  was  excellent.  Poor  young  man  I  He 
had  never  seen  a  road  deserving  of  the  name  in  his  life. 
By  corv^es,  by  forced  labour,  they  made  the  peasants 
smoothen  the  rough  track,  remove  the  big  jolting  stones, 
and  fill  up  the  ruts  and  hollows  and  holes  with  stems  of 
trees  and  branches,  and  underwood,  and  then  cover  the 
superficies  with  small  stones  and  soil.  The  Sultan  tra- 
velled in  a  light  European  caleche,  which  went  over 
the  ground  smoothly  and  beautifully  at  the  rate  of 
almost  five  miles  an  hour.  But  the  rains  and  torrents 
of  the  next  winter  washed  away  all  these  repairs,  which 
were  meant  to  serve  only  a  temporary  purpose,  and  left 
the  road  worse  than  it  had  been  before.  Also  when 
the  Sultan  passed  and  repassed,  efforts  were  made  to 
make  him  believe  that  the  condition  of  the  people  was 


78  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVII. 

smooth  and  pleasant.  The  Brusa  chief  of  the  police 
and  his  tufekjees  went  beforehand  into  all  the  villages, 
commanding  that  all  such  as  were  in  good  case  and  had 
good  clothes  should  dress  in  their  best  and  station  them- 
selves along  the  road-sides,  and  that  all  that  were  poor 
and  squalid  should  keep  out  of  sight,  as  they  valued 
their  lives.  If  one  honest,  fearless  man  could  have  ap- 
proached the  ear  of  the  young  Sultan,  he  might  have 
blown  the  illusion  away  like  a  bubble.  But  where  look 
for  such  a  man  about  the  court,  or  among  any  of  the 
Turks  and  Armenians  who  had  free  access  to  him  ? 

The  Lufar  does  not  follow  the  valley  we  entered,  but 
finds  its  way  to  the  sea  through  another  vale.  The 
plain  of  Brusa  may  be  said  at  this  termination  to  be 
tri-forked. 

As  the  central  valley  in  which  we  were  travelling 
declined  towards  the  gulf,  it  was  thickly  cultivated; 
but  the  cultivation  was  rather  slovenly.  Olive-trees, 
mulberry-trees,  and  vines  were  mixed  and  growing 
(crowded)  all  together,  in  a  manner  more  poetical  than 
profitable.  We  passed  an  agiasma,  or  holy  fountain,  of 
the  Greeks,  which  was  walled  in  and  roofed  over,  and 
looked  like  a  small  church.  A  great  festival  is  held 
here  during  three  or  four  days  each  year.  On  the 
opposite  side  of  the  valley,  in  a  recess  of  the  hills,  on 
our  leflt,  was  the  large  Greek  village  of  Missopolis,  inha- 
bited by  the  people  who  hold  and  cultivate  nearly  all 
the  valley.  There  was  not  a  Turkish  house  in  the 
place ;  the  last  of  the  Osmanlees  had  disappeared  years 
ago. 

It  was  dark  before  we  issued  from  the  valley  upon 
the  sea-beach.     Riding  for  about  a  mile  over  the  sea- 


Chap.  XVU.  SIGNOR  GALLE.  79 

sands,  we  entered  a  tolerably  broad  but  straggling 
street)  running  parallel  with  the  shore  of  Uie  gulf;  and, 
at  6  p.M^  we  dismounted  at  the  comfortable  and  hospi- 
table house  of  Signor  Michele  Galle,  a  subject  of '  Pope 
Pius  IX^  and  a  native  of  the  small  maritime  town  of 
Pwto  di  Fermo,  in  the  Marches  of  Ancona.  I  well 
knew  the  place  of  his  nativity,  and  all  the  country 
where  his  early  life  had  been  spent  He  was  the  most 
respectable,  most  gentlemanly  European  I  had  met  in 
these  Asiatic  tours.  He  practised  medicine,  and  was 
called  doctor;    he  acted   as  agent  for  our  consul   at 

Brusa ;  he  was  an  (Ad  friend  of  J.  Z ^  and  he  very^ 

soon  became  our  friend.  His  elder  brothel*  had  emi- 
grated from  the  poor  little  town  of  Porto  di  Fermo  to 
the  Levant  many  years  ago,  had  married  a  Catholic 
Greek,  and  had  settled  in  this  place.  After  an  interval 
of  some  years  he  followed  his  brother  to  the  East,  and 
was  carrying  on  business  at  Constantinople  as  an 
apothecary,  to  which  profession  he  had  been  regularly 
trained  in  Italy.  His  brother  died  at  oVEoudania  some 
ten  or  twelve  years  before  our  visit,  leaving  a  widow, 
two  young  children,  and  (for  this  country)  considerable 
property  in  houses  and  lands,  and  in  capital  employed 
at  interest.  Knowing  well  that  a  perfect  wreck  would 
be  made  of  this  property  if  left  to  the  management  of 
the  widow,  Signor  Michele  gave  up  his  business  in  the 
capital,  came  over  to  Moudania,  and  took  charge  of  the 
interests  of  the  bereaved  and  very  helpless  family. 
^^  If^"  said  he,  ^^  I  had  delayed  my  coming,  the  property 
would  have  been  devoured  by  cheats  and  thieves. 
Widows  and  orphans  are  considered  fair  prey  in  these 
parts.     God  help  them  I     Unless  she  be  strongly  pro- 


80  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVH. 

tected,  and  have  some  honest,  affectionate  male  relative 
to  manage  her  afiairs  for  her,  you  will  not  find  a  widow 
in  all  Turkey  that  can  keep  together  that  which  her 
husband  has  lefl  her.  Let  her  husband  die  ever  so 
rich,  the  widow  is  speedily  reduced  to  poverty.  It  re- 
quires a  man,  and,  if  he  be  a  Christian  and  a  stranger, 
a  man  of  quick  sight  and  the  strongest  nerves,  to  keep 
a  property  together  in  a  country  where,  correctly  speak- 
ing, there  is  no  law,  no  justice."  Well  remembering 
these  words  as  I  did,  I  could  not  help  saying  at 
Smyrna,  when  I  heard  of  the  death  of  poor  Antonacki 
Varsami,  "  God  help  his  wife  and  children ! " 

Our  host's  sister-in-law  was  living,  and  well,  and  a 
good-looking,  comfortable,  motherly  woman.  Her  two 
litde  boys  had  grown  up  into  two  fine  young  men,  with 
plenty  of  vivacity,  courage,  and  activity.  One  of  them 
had  recently  been  in  some  trouble,  originating,  I  be- 
lieve, in  a  quarrel  with  a  Turk  of  Moudania,  who 
wanted  him  to  pay  more  than  the  fixed  duty  for  the 
shipment  of  some  Indian  corn.  The  Turk  abused  him 
and  his  religion,  calling  him  ghiaour  and  kupek ;  and 
he  soundly  thrashed  the  Turk,  who  went  away  and 
swore  to  the  Aghk  and  Kadi  that  young  Galle  had 
assaulted  him  without  cause  and  had  reviled  the  blessed 
Prophet  The  Kadi  summoned  the  young  man  before 
him.  His  uncle  and  some  Christian  friends  of  the  town 
went  with  him  to  the  mehkemeh.  The  Turkish  com- 
plainant was  of  course  provided  with  his  false  witnesses, 
and  the  Kadi  would  not  take  the  evidence  of  the  Chris- 
tians. The  Aghk  joined  the  man  of  the  law  in  abusing 
the  youth ;  and  they  told  him  that  his  offence  was  so 
heinous  (in  abusing  the  Prophet)  that  they  must  send 


Chap.  XVn.     VALUE  OF  BRITISH  PROTECTION.  81 

him  to  prison  and  thence  in  chains  to  Brusa.  The 
young  man,  who  had  hitherto  merely  denied  the  words 
attributed  to  him,  was  now  overcome  by  rage,  and 
really  committed  the  high  crime  of  which  he  was  ac- 
cused, for  he  called  them  all  rogues  and  liars,  he  called 
Mahomet  an  impostor,  and  he  did  the  dirty  thing  on 
the  Prophet's  beard  I  His  uncle,  having  calmed  him, 
fell  into  nearly  as  great  a  passion  himself,  roundly 
rating  both  Kadi  and  Aghk,  renunding  them  of  many 
preceding  acts  of  iniquity,  and  defying  them  to  imprison 
a  Frank  Christian  who  enjoyed  the  protection  of  Great 
Britain,  as  his  father  had  done  before  him.  The  Turk- 
ish authorities  were  completely  cowed*  The  youth 
walked  home  with  his  uncle,  and  not  only  the  Greeks 
but  many  of  the  Osmanlees  of  the  town  united  with 
them  in  laughing  at  the  beards  of  the  governor  and 
judge.  A  flaming  report  was  sent  to  Mustapha-Nouree 
Pasha  at  Brusa,  whose  fanaticism  was  thereby  much 
excited ;  but  the  Pasha  no  more  dared  to  molest  the 
young  man  than  the  Aghk  and  Kadi  had  done.  Had 
it  been  a  Greek  rayah  there  would  have  been  torture  or 
even  death.  The  business  ended  in  our  consul  calling 
young  Galle  and  some  of  his  witnesses  up  to  Brusa,  and 
in  a  rebuke  from  the  consul  for  the  confessed  abuse  of 
the  Prophet  in  the  Mussulman  court. 

We  stayed  in  Moudania  the  whole  of  the  following 
day,  which  was  a  Sunday,  seeing  the  town  and  visiting 
three  or  four  very  respectable  Greek  families.  The 
houses  within  were  neat  and  clean ;  the  women  and 
children  were  elegantly  dressed  in  the  Greek  style. 
The  men  were  all  engaged  in  commerce — chiefly  in 
exporting  the  produce  of  the  country-^there  was  not 

VOL.  11.  o 


jB2  -  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESHNY.  Chap.  XVII. 

one  of  them  but  would  have  gladly  given  half  he  was 
wprth  for  English,  or  French,  or  Russian  protection. 
They  said  that  as  rayah  subjects  of  the  Porte,  they 
could  never  obtain  justice  where  Mussulman  interests 
were  opposed  to  theirs ;  that  they  held  their  own  by  an 
insecure  tenure ;  that  the  Tanzimaut  was,  as  far  as  they 
were  concerned,  a  mere  sham,  and  that  injustice  and 
oppression  weighed  quite  as  heavily  upon  them  as  in 
the  days  of  Sultan  Mahmoud.  They  complained  of 
the  export-duties  laid  upon  all  the  produce  of  the 
country,  and  of  the  frequently  irregular  transit-duties 
levied  upon  produce  on  its  way  from  the  interior  to  the 
sea-ports.  They  said  that  they,  as  peacefol  rayah  sub- 
jects of  the  Porte,  laboured  under  many  disadvantages 
from  which  the  Frank  merchant  was  exempt^  and  from 
which  the  Greeks  of  the  Ionian  Islands  were  equally 
free,  because  they  had  British  protection,  and  passed 
everywhere  in  Turkey  for  bond  Jide  British  subjects. 
There  was  not  a  Greek-  in  the  place  but  would  have 
made  himself  a  protected  subject  even  of  a  third-rate 
Christian  state  if  he  had  been  able  to  do  so ;  for  even  a 
Neapolitan,  a  Roman,  or  Tuscan  enjoyed  in  Turkey 
advantages  that  were  denied  to  the  native  rayah  subjects 
of  the  Sultan.  Take  away  the  sera&  and  those  in  the 
immediate  employment  of  government,  tibere  was 
scarcely  an  Armenian  but  would  have  shown  the  same 
willingness  to  pass  as  the  subject  of  any  other  power 
rather  than  of  that  he  was  born  under. 

In  matters  of  commerce,  the  protection  to  a  Rayah 
of  a  powerful  natjion  is  a  good  per  centage  on  every  ope- 
ration. But  men  are  not  always  trading,  and  even 
Armenian^   the   most  plodding,  and  trafficking,  and 


Chap.  XVH.    AN  AKMENIAN  A  RUSSIAN  SUBJECT.  83 

« 

money-thinking  of  men,  have  some  sensibilities  beyond 
those  which  reside  in  the  purse.  They  are  far  from 
being  so  sensitive  or  so  proud,  or  vain  as  the  Greeks ; 
but  among  the  Armenians  there  are  many  very  capable 
of  resenting  insult  An  English  gentleman,  long  resi*" 
dent  in  Constantinople,  told  us  this  story : — 

An  Armenian  (not  a  seraff)  who  lived  at  the  village 
of  Arnaout-keui,  on  the  Bosphorus,  could  never  go  to 
smoke  his  narguil^  at  the  coffee-house  without  being 
msulted  and  reriled  by  an  odious  Turk,  his  neighbour. 
As  a  Rayah  he  did  not  dare  to  show  his  resentment — 
he  too  well  knew  the  value  of  Tanzimaut  and  Hatti 
Scheriff  to  expose  himself  to  the  dangers  of  a  litigation 
in  a  Mussulman  court  He  bore  his  wrongs,  but  grew 
thin  and  pale  under  them.  At  last,  doing  as  so  many 
Bayahs  annually  do,  he  shipped  himself  off  for  Odessa* 
In  about  four  months  he  returned,  a  made  Russian 
subject,  with  a  title  to  all  the  powerful  protection  which 
the  Russian  Legation  never  fails  to  give  in  such  cases. 
He  went  to  Arnaout-keui,  and  to  his  old  coffee-house ; 
and  there  he  found  his  old  persecutor,  who  lost  no  time 
in  renewing  his  assault  The  Armenian  let  the  Turk 
void  his  foul  vocabulary ;  but  then  he  turned  upon  him, 
and  enjoyed  the  sweetness  of  revenge.  "  Hk  pezavenk  I 
Hk  karata !  Hk !  thou  eater  of  dirt,  dost  thou  not 
know  that  I  am  a  Muscov  ? — that  I  am  protected  by 
the  Muscov  Elchee,  and  that  I  can  spit  at  thy  beard  ?  '* 
The  Turk  slunk  away,  and  never  more  molested  the 
Russianized  Rayah. 

There  were  about  7000  inhabitants  in  this  sea-port 
town  of  Moudania,  and  of  this  number  not  mote  than 
1000  were  Mussulmans — and  these  conquerors  of  the 

g2 


84  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVII. 

soil  were  the  poorest  of  the  lot,  and,  with  the  exception 
of  three  or  four  families  of  them,  were  living  in  the 
worst  of  the  houses. 

I  made  some  remarks  to  Signor  Galle  as  to  their  bad 
cultivation  and  management  of  olive-groves.  He  knew 
more  about  the  culture  of  the  olive  than  I  did — the 
olive-groves  between  Porto  di  Fermo  and  Ancona  are 
managed  to  perfection.  He  told  me  that  he  had  im- 
proved some  of  the  groves  which  belonged  to  his 
brother,  and  had  endeavoured  to  show  the  people  of  the 
country  the  way  of  improving  theirs ;  but  the  Turks  set 
their  faces  against  any  innovation,  and  the  Bayahs,  also 
wedded  to  the  practices  of  their  grandfathers,  were 
averse  to  change,  and  were  so  taxed  and  harassed,  and 
so  afraid  of  being  thought  rich,  that  they  would  do 
nothing  in  the  way  of  improvement  Some  other 
attempts  in  agriculture  had  been  alike  unsuccessful,  and 
for  the  same  causes;  so  that  for  some  years  he  had 
given  up  all  hopes.  "  To  do  any  good  in  this  country, 
or  to  see  it  done,"  said  Signor  Galle,  ^^  a  man  ought  to 
live  to  a  Patriarchal  age,  and  see  the  Turks  dispossessed 
of  the  sovereignty  forthwith.  There  is  a  malediction  of 
heaven  and  a  self-destructiveness  on  their  whole  system. 
I  know  them  well — I  have  now  lived  many  years 
among  them — there  are  admirable  qualities  in  the  poor 
Turks,  but  their  government  is  a  compound  of  ignorance, 
blundering,  vice — vice  of  the  most  atrocious  kind — and 
weakness  and  rottenness.  And  whatever  becomes  a 
part  of  government,  or  in  any  way  connected  with  it, 
by  the  fact,  becomes  corrupt.  Take  the  honestest  Turk 
you  c%n  find,  and  put  him  in  oflSce  and  power,  and  then 
tell  me  three  months  afterwards  what  he  is !     He  must 


Chap.  XVn.         DESTITUTION  AT  MOUDANIA.  85 

conform  to  the  general  system,  or  cease  to  be  in  office. 
One  little  wheel,  however  subordinate  it  may  be,  would 
derange  the  whole  machine  if  its  teeth  did  not  fit** 

As  the  Greeks  were  keeping  a  fast,  and  as  the  Turks 
neither  were  sportsmen  nor  had  any  sheep  to  kill,  there 
was  nothing  to  be  had  for  the  table  in  Moudania,  except 
some  inferior  fish,  caviare,  and  cabbage.  The  wine  was 
abominable.  There  was  no  milk — there  never  is  in 
these  sea-port  towns.  With  great  difficulty  a  few  bad 
apples  and  dried  walnuts  were  obtained.  A  good  deal 
of  fruit  used  to  be  grown  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  the 
Turks  had  taxed  it,  and  the  people  had  cut  down  their 
fruit-trees  rather  than  pay  the  saliane  upon  them. 
Signor  Galle  assured  me  that  only  the  other  day  a 
number  of  fine  walnut-trees  had  been  destroyed,  the 
Greeks  saying  that  they  had  had  nothing  but  trouble 
with  the  trees,  and  had  been  made  to  pay  more  to  the 
tax-gatherers  than  the  fruit  was  worth.  "  Next  year,'* 
said  they,  "  the  saliane-collectors  shall  find  no  fruit- 
trees  to  tax  I  '*  Our  excellent  host  was  disperatOj  quite 
au  dese^oir,  on  our  account;  but  we  did  very  well, 
and  I  only  mention  the  state  of  the  table  in  the  very 
best  house  in  all  Moudania — a  sea-port  with  a  population 
of  7000 ! — to  show  the  nakedness  of  the  land. 

The  situation  of  the  place  is  far  more  healthy,  but 
the  harbour  is  not  so  good  as  at  Ghemlik.  The  traffic 
with  the  capital  chiefly  consists  of  inferior  wines,  which 
cost  about  fburpence  per  gallon,  raki,  which  is  made  in 
considerable  quantities,  a  little  very  bad  oil,  and  dried 
black  olives.  The  Greeks  were  talking  of  giving  up 
their  small  trade  in  oil  altogether,  on  account  of  the 
necessity  they  lay  under  of  carrying  their  olives  to  the 


86  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVH. 

Turkish  mill.  One  poor  fellow  told  us  that  this^year, 
before  he  got  free  of  the  mill)  the  Turks  had  gotten 
more  than  half  of  the  oil  his  olives  had  rendered,  and 
that,  when  he  complained  to  the  Agha,  he  was  only 
abused  and  threatened. 

Messrs.  Pavlacchi  and  Co.,  who  had  one  of  the  new 
and  extensive  silk-works  at  Brusa  under  the  direction  of 
the  intelligent  French  people  I  have  mentioned,  had 
just  finished  building  another  but  smaller  Filatura  on 
the  edge  of  the  town  of  Moudania.  The  machinery 
was  set  up,  and  would  have  given  employment  to 
between  forty  and  fifty  men,  women,  and  children ;  but 
the  times  were  unpropitious,  and  they  had  scarcely 
begun  to  work.  Except  when  smuggled,  silk  could  not 
be  exported  from  Moudania ;  the  producers  were  obliged 
to  carry  it  by  land  to  Brusa,  and  from  Brusa  it  was 
carried  by  land  to  Ghemlik.  Two  such  journeys,  over 
such  roads^  are  no  trifling  discouragements ;  and  Ghem- 
lik is  good  fifteen  miles  farther  irom  the  capital  than 
Moudania.  This  new  Filatura  was  under  the  manage- 
ment of  a  very  quiet,  intelligent,  worthy  man,  who 
came  from  the  South  of  Fr^^nce,  and  bitterly  regretted 
having  ever  come  to  this  exile  in  Turkey.  He  was 
half  starved  ;  he  was  hypochondriac  ]  he  was  the 
most  melancholy,  despairing  Frenchman  I  ever  met 
He  told  me  that,  at  times,  he  had  found  the  want  of 
society  so  terrible,  that  he  had  been  tempted  to  tie 
a  stone  romid  his  neck,  and  throw  himself  into  the^ 
gulf. 

On  Monday  morning  at  about  10  a.m.  we  set  off  on 
a  little  excursion  along  the  coast  to  the  west,  to  visit 
the  Greek  town  of  Psyche  or  Sychee,  and  its  far  re- 


Chap.  XVIL     MIBACULOUS  CURE  OF  INSAOTTY.  87 

nowned  church.  There  was  no  road ;  our  path  lay 
chiefly  along  tall  clifis,  or  over  hills  that  shelve  down 
to  the  sea ;  it  was  nearly  as  rough  and  perilous  as  the 
one  we  had  travelled  at  Cyzicus.  It  took  us  more  than 
three  hours  to  ride  a  distance  which  ought  to  be  per- 
formed in  less  than  one. 

The  town  of  Sychee  was  also  beautifully  situated  on 
the  crest  of  a  hill,  overlooking  the  sea,  the  opposite 
coast,  and  the  long  island  of  Kalolimno  (in  Turkish 
Imbrali)  which  lies  off  the  mouth  of  the  Gulf  of  Mou- 
dania ;  but  the  usual  disenchantment  took  place  when 
we  got  into  the  foul,  steep  streets.  The  church,  built 
by  a  Greek  emperor  towards  the  close  of  the  eighth 
century,  is  a  solid,  massive,  stone  edifice.  It  is  a  place 
of  pilgrimage  and  great  resort ;  it  is  the  scene  of  an 
annual  festival  which  lasts  several  days;  it  is  more 
famous  all  over  the  country  even  than  the  church  and 
shrine  at  Lubat.  Miracles  are  performed  in  it ;  and 
above  all  it  is  noted  for  its  miraculous  cures  of  insanity. 

According  to  the  priests  who  showed  it  to  us,  if  you 
lost  your  wits  your  friends  had  nothing  to  do  but  to 
carry  you  to  the  church,  lay  you  down  on  a  mattress  on 
the  floor  before  the  screen  of  the  altar,  and  there  leave 
you  for  two  or  three  days  and  nights  under  the  care  of 
the  saints  and  priests.  A  square  antechamber,  through 
which  we  passed  before  entering  the  body  of  the  church, 
was  piled  up  with  mattresses  and  coverlets  from  the 
floor  to  the  ceiling,  ready  to  be  let  out  to  mad  patients. 
It  looked  like  a  bedding^warehouse  rather  than  the 
porch  of  a  temple.  The  priest  told  us  that  when 
business  was  brisk  they  made  a  good  penny  by  their 
mattresses  and  covers,  and  that  the  Turks,  as  well  as 


88  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVn. 

the  Greeks,  brought  their  mad  people  to  the  church  to 
be  cured !  This  last  curious  and  rather  startling  asser* 
tion  was  confirmed  by  our  guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend,  who  had  seen  more  than  one  Turk,  as  mad  as 
March  hares,  carried  to  the  miracle-working  spot;  and 
he  had  known  others  who  were  witless  enough  to  be- 
lieve that  they  had  recovered  their  wits  by  being  laid 
upon  their  backs  in  the  Ghiaour  Tekh.  Perhaps  it  is 
owing  to  this  Turkish  faith  in  the  miracula  loci  that 
the  church  has  been  preserved  from  Mussulman  I'ury 
during  nearly  eleven  hundred  years.  In  a  remote  part 
of  Asiatic  Turkey  Bishop  Southgate  visited  another 
church  where  madness  was  said  to  be  cured  in  the  same 
miraculous  manner ;  but  in  that  church  the  Greeks  had 
chains  and  iron  collars  wherewith  to  secure  the  maniacs, 
and  here  there  was  nothing  of  the  sort.  We  asked  the 
priest  how  they  managed  with  their  obstreperous 
visitors.  He  said  that  there  was  a  holiness  in  the  air 
which  instantly  calmed  the  mad,  and  that  when  they 
hung  out  the  picture  of  St.  George  of  Cappadocia  no 
man  could  possibly  rave.  I  heard  rather  a  different 
story  from  another  quarter. 

One  night,  when  four  or  five  demented  Greeks  were 
sprawling  on  the  church  floor — men  and  women  mixed 
— one  of  them,  going  off  at  score,  began  to  pummel  his 
neighbours ;  they  rose  and  began  to  pummel  and  clap- 
perclaw him;  his  fury  was  contagious;  the  attendant 
priests,  though  stout,  strapping  fellows,  interposed  in 
vain;  their  beards  and  their  long  hair  suffered  great 
detriment  in  the  scuffle;  and  they  only  saved  them- 
selves from  more  serious  injury  by  running  up  a  narrow 
staircase  into  the  gallery  of  the  church  and  making  fast 


Chap.  XYH.         GREEK  CHURCH  AT  STCHEE.  89 

a  strong  door.  This  little  incident,  however,  had  not 
at  all  shaken  the  popular  credulity. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  there  was  no  patient  in  the 
church,  but  one  was  expected  this  evening,  and  the 
priest  s  wife  was  airing  a  mattress  for  him.  At  the  gate 
of  the  church  some  itinerant  traders  had  set  up  a  tem- 
porary bazaar,  where  they  were  selling  cotton  stuffs, 
and  stockings,  and  small  Brusa  silk  handkerchiefs,  and 
where  some  people  of  the  town  were  vending  bread, 
small  salted-fish,  and  raki.  We  needed  not  the  last 
scent  from  them,  for  the  priest  carried  it  with  him 
wherever  he  went.  In  a  court-yard  behind  the  church 
about  a  dozen  of  Greeks  were  making  holiday  with 
music  and  drink.  Two  of  them  played  upon  cracked 
fiddles,  and  the  rest — bating  only  when  the  rakicup 
was  at  their  lips — were  singing  a  loud  nasal  chorus. 
This  music  and  the  chaffering  of  the  people  at  the 
door  were  audible  in  all  parts  of  the  church. 

The  Greek  and  Armenian  clergy  may  in  one  sense 
be  called  marchands  de  lumihres  (dealers  in  light)  ; 
they  are  eternally  selling  wax*candles  and  long  wax- 
tapers  :  a  principal  part  of  the  revenue  of  every  church 
is  derived  from  this  trade.  Our  priest's  boy  brought 
in  an  armful  of  tapers,  hoping  that  -we  would  light  a 
few  before  some  one  of  the  pictures  of  the  saints, 
assuring  us  that  it  would  bring  us  good  luck  and  give 
us  a  safe  journey  back  to  Moudania.  The  tchelebee, 
who  had  been  almost  roaring  with  laughter — without 
the  least  offence  to  the  priest — said  that  we  had  better 
conform  to  the  custom  of  the  place,  and  that  a  few 
piastres  for  the  tapers  would  do  for  the  backshish. 
"  Which  shall  be  the  saint  ?"  said  John.     *'  St.  George 


90  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chab.  XVIL 

for  Old  England !  *'  The  picture  of  St.  George  in  the 
act  of  slaying  the  dragon  was  right  before  us,  and  our 
nimble  companion  began  to  light  the  tapers  at  a  lantern 
which  the  boy  held,  and  to  fitsten  them  to  some  small 
iron  spikes  that  formed  a  semicircle  round  a  pole  in 
front  of  the  picture.  As  we  were  expected  to  be  mu- 
nificent, he  continued  his  operations  until  he  had  filled 
that  semicircle  and  one  below  it,  and  another  above  it ; 
and  we  left  that  dark  part  of  the  church  in  a  blaze  of 
light:  but,  before  we  finished  our  survey,  the  boy 
pufied  out  all  the  lights  one  by  one,  and  popped  the 
tapers  into  a  basket  They  would  do  again,  or,  rather, 
the  wax  being  re-melted,  would  be  made  up  into  new 
tapers  to  be  sold  to  other  visitors.     I  thought  of  my 

old  Neapolitan  firiend  the  late  Duke  of  B ,  who 

estimated  the  merits  of  a  church  ceremony  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  quantity  of  wax  that  was  burnt 
When  he  said  "  c  h  stato  un  consume  di  cera  magni" 
Jwol^ — (there  has  been  a  magnificent  consumption  of 
wax) — it  meant  everything. 

The  pictures  of  virgins  and  saints  in  this  church  of 
Sychee  were  rather  numerous,  but  small,  painted  upon 
panel,  and  exceedingly  barbarous.  This  was  the  case 
in  all  the  Greek-  churches  we  visited.  I  believe  they 
were  all  very  old  pictures,  but  one  cannot  decide  by 
style,  as  the  modern  limners  merely  copy  and  repeat 
the  lines  and  colours  of  their  predecessors.*  A  large, 
modern,  marble  tablet,  on  the  right-hand  side  on  enter- 
ing, commemorated  that  the  church  had  been  built  by 
one  Greek  emperor,  a.d.  780,  repaired  and  beautified 

♦  On  this  subject  see  Mr.  Curzon'a  recently  published  and  exceedingly 
interesting  tour  among  the  Greek  monasteries  of  the  Levant. 


Chap.  XVn.        VENALITY  OF  GREEK  PRIESTS.  91 

under  another  Greek  emperor  in  1248,  and  finally  re- 
paired and  embellished  under  that  **  great  and  just" 
sovereign  Sultan  Mahmoud  in  the  year  1818.  I  de- 
plored to  see  so  ancient  a  Christian  edifice  degraded 
by  such  gross  superstition  and  such  indecent  practices. 
So  soon  as  we  took  our  leave  the  priest  who  had  been 
our  guide  went  and  joined  the  fiddling-singing-and- 
drinking  party  in  the  court-yard  at  the  back  of  the 
church. 

The  ignorance  and  venality  of  this  priesthood  are 
producing  the  most  pernicious  effects  upon  the  Greek 
people.  Generally  I  found  that  the  most  ignorant  man 
in  a  Greek  party  was  pretty  sure  to  be  the  priest ;  and 
I  should  say  that,  almost  invariably,  the  greatest  dram- 
drinkers  and  wine-bibbers  were  the  priests.  These 
men  are  daily  bringing  into  disrepute  the  religion  they 
profess.  In  the  great  towns  the  better  educated  of  the 
Greeks  (particularly  if  they  could  read  French)  were 
all  becoming  freethinkers.  Even  in  the  smaller  towns 
and  villages  of  Asia  Minor  the  faith  of  the  people  is 
shaken.  Seven  years  before  our  tour  a  clergyman  of 
the  Church  of  England  came  to  the  conclusion  ^^  that 
in  a  few  years  the  great  evil  of  Greece  in  regard  to 
religion  will  be  not  superstition,  but  infidelity."  ♦  The 
same  is  certainly  the  tendency  of  the  Greeks  in 
Turkey.  In  Constantinople  the  infidelity  was  already 
widely  spread  among  all  the  young  men  who  had  been 
educated  alia  Franka,  The  secularization  of  the 
schools,  upon  which  the  Greeks  seemed  everywhere 

*  'Report  of  a  Journey  to  the  Levant,  addressed  to  His  Grace  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,'  &c.,  by  the  Hev.  George  Tomlinson,  M.A. 
London,  1841. 


92  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVU. 

setting  their  hearts — declaring  that  the  priests  were  so 
ignorant  that  they  were  not  fit  to  be  schoolmasters — 
will  assuredly  be  a  deadly  blow  to  the  Greek  church. 

We  were  told  that  Sychee  contained  above  200 
houses.  The  people  had  been  cutting  down  their  fruit- 
trees,  for  the  reasons  I  have  mentioned  at  Moudania. 

Our  calm  and  sensible  host  had  been  an  attentive 
observer  of  the  working  of  the  reform  system  of  govern- 
ment, and  his  long  residence  in  the  country  and  expe- 
rience in  actual  business  gave  weight  to  his  opinions. 
He  said  that  nothing  really  had  been  changed  for  the 
better,  except  as  regarded  sanguinary  executions.  The 
Turks  did  not  behead  or  hang  men  half  so  frequently  as 
in  former  times;  but  the  people  were  more  oppressed 
and  more  a  prey  to  fiscal  extortion  than  when  he  came 
into  the  country,  more  than  twenty  years  ago.  Under 
the  old  system,  when  the  pashas  collected  the  revenues, 
the  government  never  knew  what  it  would  get.  The 
ushurjees,  or  farmers  of  the  revenue,  had  given  a  very 
desirable  certainty  to  the  Porte,  and  had  raised  the 
annual  income  of  the  state.  He  believed  that  the  money 
was  not  only  paid  to  the  Porte  with  more  regularity,  but 
was  also  considerably  greater  in  total  amount  These 
opinions  were  also  entertained  by  the  English  and  French 
consuls  at  Brusa.  But  Signor  Galle  did  not  believe 
that  the  revenue  could  long  be  kept  up  to  its  present 
high  standard;  and  every  year  the  government  was 
requiring  more  and  more  money,  and  the  Fermiers 
Generaux,  who  were  all  in  reality  Armenian  seraflfe, 
were  absolutely  crushing  energy  and  life  out  of  the 
people  in  their  efforts  to  satisfy  the  Porte  and  make  a 
surplus  of  profit  for  themselves.     There  was  no  justice 


Chap.  XTO.       TYRANNY  OF  TAX-GATHERERS.  93 

or  moderation  in  the  proceedings  of  these  fiscal  tyrants, 
whOy  whenever  they  chose,  could  command  the  strong 
arm  of  the  Turk.  Properly  speaking  there  was  no  con- 
tabilitfi^  no  system  of  accounts.  The  most  false  and 
fraudulent  entry  made  by  an  ushurjee,  or  by  a  collector 
of  the  saliane,  or  by  a  Turkish  mudir,  was  held  to  be 
decisive  of  the  justice  of  every  claim  for  money  that 
might  be  set  up.  None  of  the  Turkish  peasants  could 
read  or  write,  and  scarcely  a  Greek  of  any  class  could 
read  Turkish.  When  receipts  were  given  to  thsm,  they 
could  not  tell  what  sum  was  set  down.  When  the 
Greeks  in  a  town  or  lai^  village  were  united  among 
themselves,  and  really  allowed  to  elect  their  own  tchor- 
bajees,  and  when  these  lay  primates  were  honest  men, 
and  not  in  partnership  with  the  Turkish  governor  or 
heads  of  police,  or  revenue  collectors,  the  Greeks  could 
now  and  then  make  a  successful  stand  against  injustice. 
But  so  happy  a  combination  of  circumstances  is  most 
rare.  The  Mussulman  part  of  the  population  (more 
helpless  and  indolent)  is  suffering  more  than  theBayahs. 
To  my  mournful  list  of  deserted  Turkish  villages  he 
added  many  more.  In  Moudania  the  decline  of  the 
Mussulman  population,  in  his  time,  had  been  rapid. 
As  a  medical  practitioner  his  means  of  observation  had 
been  extensive ;  and  he  more  than  confirmed  the  horrible 
fact  of  the  prevalence  of  forced  abortion.  *'  Grave  virus 
mwnditicLS peprdii  I  ^  He  held  it  to  be  utterly  impossible 
for  the  Turks  to  continue  to  meet  the  demands  made 
upon  them.  Nothing  was  done  to  stimulate  their  in- 
dustry. The  industry  of  the  Rayahs  was  discouraged, 
for  so  soon  as  they  showed  any  symptoms  of  prosperity 
the  fiscal  screw  was  applied  to  them.    The  Greeks  were 


94  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XYU. 

a  vain  people,  fond  of  show,  and  very  fond  of  having 
their  wives  and  children  finely  dressed.  Except  where 
they  had  foreign  protection  they  were  afiraid  of  showing 
their  finery  out  of  doors.  If  a  cocona  exhibited  a  smart 
new  dress  in  public,  the  Hadji,  her  husband,  might  ex- 
pect a  visit  from  the  tax-gatherers  a  day  or  two  after. 
The  present  Aghk  of  Moudania  was  a  rogue  without 
conscience  or  bowels ;  he  carried  on  a  little  private  trade 
of  his  own,  and  he  was  always  ready  to  back  the  other 
extortioners.  Complaints  had  been  made  to  Beshid 
Pasha,  but  the  Agha  was  strongly  supported  at  Con* 
stantinople,  and  the  Armenian  seraffi)  described  him  as 
an  excellent  officer  for  raising  the  revenue.  Our  host 
did  not  attach  much  importance  to  his  removal.  ^^  I 
have  seen  many  of  those  gentry  here,"  said  he,  ^^  and 
they  are  all  alike  I  In  becoming  the  governor  of  a  town 
or  of  a  province,  a  Turk,  however  difierent  he  may 
have  been  before  in  private  life,  becomes  precisely  iht 
same  public  man  as  his  predecessor.  He  has  none  bu 
corrupt  instruments  wherewith  to  work.  Some  have 
more  urbanity  and  less  fanaticism  than  others,  but  in 
essentials  they  are  all  alike.  I  have  known  some  of 
the  new-school  men,  and  I  think,  if  there  is  a  distinction 
to  be  made,  they  are  the  toorst  of  all.  They  are  more 
greedy  of  money,  and  more  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Armenian  seraflb.  They  are  nearly  all  low-born  meiv 
brought  out  of  sordid  poverty,  and  promoted  either 
through  an  intrigue  or  on  account  of  their  indiflbrentism 
in  religion  and  their  readiness  to  adapt  themselves  to 
any  change  which  may  come  into  the  Vizier's  head. 
But,  in  ceasing  to  be  Mussulmans,  these  men  have  not 
become  Christians,  but  materialists  and  atheists.    Some 


Chap.  XVH.       ANCIENT  APAMEA— IIOUDANIA.  95 

of  them  are  patting  on  European  manners  as  well  as  the 
Frank  dress — mh  il  lupo  cangia  ilpehy  e  non  il  vizior 

The  weight  of  interest  lay  like  an  enormous  incubus 
upon  the  people.  Here,  at  Moudania,  where  every 
enterprise  was  stopped  through  want  of  capital,  money 
was  not  to  be  procured  under  25  per  cent. :  and  M ou- 
dania  was  next  door  to  the  capital. 

On  Tuesday,  the  14th  of  December,  we  rode  slowly 
back  to  Brusa.  We  made  a  short  detour  to  visit  the 
slight  remains  of  the  ancient  Apamea,  which  lie  to  the 
east,  between  Moudania  and  a  village  called  Nicor. 
The  ruins  are  inconsiderable,  and  nearly  all  under 
water ;  the  crust  of  earth  must  have  sunk,  or  the  level 
of  the  sea  must  have  risra  since  they  were  built,  or  they 
must  have  been  basements  of  marine  villas  and  other 
edifices,  laid,  like  those  of  Baiae  in  the  bay  of  Naples^ 
under  the  level  of  the  water.  In  the  house  of  a  Greek 
named  Gosti  Ylacudi,  in  the  village  of  Nicor,  there  was 
this  broken  inscription — 

VXXV.  DIVO.  AVG.  SACRO.  GIMN 

and  this  was  the  only  piece  of  antiquity  that  was  left. 
Columns,  statues,  coins,  all  had  disappeared  long  since. 
We  could  only  say  that  we  stood  upon  the  site  of  a 
beautifiil  Greek  city,  one  of  the  fairest  of  Bithynia,  and 
by  the  help  of  imagination  draw  a  contrast  between  it 
and  its  miserable  successor,  Moudania. 

Quitting  the  sea-shore,  we  soon  regained  the  track  by 
which  we  had  travelled  from  Brusa.  The  snow  was 
lying  low  down  on  Olympus,  the  weather  was  overcast 
and  cold,  and  towards  sunset,  just  as  we  were  under  the 
suburb  of  Brusa,  it  began  to  rain  and  sleet. 

On  the  evening  of  the  18th  of  December  we  left 


96  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVH. 

Brusa  for  the  last  time.  We  rede  to  Hadji  Hai vat.  We 
had  passed  many  pleasant  hours  in  the  lonely  spot 
Without  being  a  Sage  I  could  see  many  charms  in  the 
face  of  this  solitude.  With  my  children  and  books, 
and  one  or  two  friends,  and  the  conviction  or  hope  that 
I  might  be  in  some  measure  the  means  of  doing  good  to 
the  country,  I  could  willingly  have  spent  the  remnant 
of  my  days  here,  in  the  shadow  of  Olympus.  We,  how- 
ever, had  made  our  preparations  to  take  our  departure 
in  the  course  of  the  next  day. 

The  19th  of  December  was  a  mild  balmy  day.  In 
tlie  morning  we  had  quite  a  levee  at  the  farm,  for  brave 
Ibrahim,  with  his  step-son,  young  Mahmoud,  and  merry 
Halil,  and  old  Suleiman,  the  muktar  of  the  hamlet,  and 
Asian,  the  gigantic  Greek,  and  Yorghi,  and  all  our 
friends,  gathered  round  us  to  take  leave,  and  wish  us  a 
happy  journey.  I  believe  they  were  sincerely  sorry  that 
we  were  going ;  we  were  certainly  sorry  that  we  should 
see  them  no  more. 


Chap,  XVIII.  KELES8EN.  97 


CHAPTER  XVm. 

Joamey  back  to  Constantinople  —  Kelessen  —  Yorvacki  and  Family  -^ 
Demiidesb  —  A  Greek  assassinated  by  mistake  :  bis  Widow  —  Greek 
Marriage  Festivals  —  The  Greek  Lay-Primates  —  Oppressive  Taxation 

—  Forced  Labour  —  Arbitrary  Fines  —  Crushing  weight  of  Interest 

—  Story  of  the  Greek  Bishop  at  Bnisa  —  Decay  of  religious  belief  and  of 
respect  for  the  Greek  Clergy  —  Church  and  School  of  Demirdesh  —  More 
about  Weddings  —  Greek  Gallantry  —  Ghemlik,  or  Ghio  —  Kir-Yani : 
his  House  and  Lion  and  Unicom  —  Mr.  Longworth  —  Tuzlar  and  the 
English  Farm  —  Agricultural  Remarks  —  Vindictive  Bulgarians  — 
Leave-takings  —  Kir-Yani  and  his  sad  end  —  Turkish  Steamer  — 
Delays  —  A  Turkish  Colonel  —  A  Dervish  —  Hadji  Cost^  &c.,  &c. 

We  mounted  at  noon  on  the  19th  of  December,  the 
weather  being  then  warm  like  an  English  summer  day. 
At  L45  P.M.  we  entered  Kelessen,  the  village  of  poor 
Yorvacki.    It  contained  ninety  houses,  of  which  only  six 

were  now  occupied  by  Turks.     When  Monsieur  C 

first  came  into  the  country,  thirty-two  years  ago,  the 
Turks  were  more  numerous  here  than  the  Greeks. 
Several  proofs  of  this  fact  remained.  Nearly  all  the 
houses  were  built  in  the  Turkish  manner,  with  grated 
windows,  and  separate  apartments  for  the  women ;  and 
all  the  villagers  spoke  Turkish,  and  not  Greek.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  most  of  these  houses 
were  falling  to  pieces,  and  that  a  broad  cesspool  was  in 
the  midst  of  the  main  street.  We  alighted  at  the  coffee- 
house where  Yorvacki  had  been  put  to  the  torture,  and 
heard  the  whole  of  that  story  again  from  men  who  were 
present,  but  who  were  afraid  to  appear  as  witnesses, 

VOL.  IT.  H 


98  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVUI. 

We  went  to  Yorvacki's  house,  and  saw  his  old  father 
and  mother.  The  father  was  very  aged  and  infirm, 
and  the  approaches  of  second  childhood  seemed  to 
render  him  almost  insensible  to  the  troubles  which  had 
fallen  upon  his  son.  The  mother  wept  bitterly,  and 
told  us  she  felt  sure  that  Yorvacki  would  be  ruined,  if 
not  murdered,  by  the  malice  of  Khodja  Arab  and  the 
tchorbajees.  This  very  morning  he  had  been  told  by 
the  tchorbajees  that  they  would  have  their  revenge, 
and  that  he  must  now  pay  the  full  kbaratch,  or  poll-tax, 
of  60  piastres  for  his  youngest  brother,  who  was  not  yet 
of  age  to  pay  the  lowest  rate  of  that  tax,  or  1 5  piastres. 
By  law,  old  age  and  infirmity  gave  an  exemption ;  but 
they  had  been  making  him  pay  60  piastres  a-year  for 
the  head  of  his  poor  old  father.  One  of  the  tchor- 
bajees had  driven  his  buffaloes  into  the  best  of  his  bean- 
fields,  where  the  young  beans  were  just  coming  up. 

These  villagers  grow  vast  quantities  of  beans,  which 
are  generally  sold  to  be  eaten  green.  We  comforted 
the  afflicted  family  as  well  as  we  could.  I  had  Yor- 
vacki's  petition  to  Reshid  Pasha  in  my  portmanteau ;  and 
I  was  still  credulous  enough  to  believe  that  justice  and 
protection  might  be  obtained  for  him  at  head-quarters. 

We  remounted  at  3.15  p.m,  ;  and  after  riding  for 
about  twenty  minutes  we  alighted  in  the  large  village 
of  Demirdesh,  at  the  door  of  one  of  our  tchelebee's 
countless  fi*iends.  His  arrival  was  hailed  with  a  trans- 
port of  joy.  He  had  not  been  to  Demirdesh  for  more 
than  two  months.  What  had  he  been  doing?  His 
friends  had  missed  him  much.  The  partridges  on  the 
hill-sides,  and  up  the  Katerlee  mountains,  were  all 
waiting  for  him ! 


Chaf.  Xyin.  DEMIBDESH.  99 

Our  present  quarters  were  most  comfortable.     There 
was  filth  enough  in  the  street  without^  hut  all  within 
was  scrupulously  dean  and  neat     There  was  also  an 
abundance  both  in  larder  and  in  cellar,  and  a  spirit  of 
hospitality  which  rejoiced  in  dispensing  it    It  was  high 
fast     The  Greeks  were  in  the  very  midst  of  the  forty 
days'  fast  with  which  they  precede  the  feasting  of  their 
Christmas ;  but  as  we  were  not  of  their  churchy  nor 
bound  to  their  rules,  our  host  would  kill  poultry  for  us, 
and  cook  us  some  partridges ;  and  it  was  all  in  vain 
that  we  protested  that  we  could  do  very  well  without 
I  believe,  however,  that  very  few  religious  prejudices 
were  shocked  by  our  feast  in  fast«time.     The  men  of 
Demirdesh  were  rapidly  emancipating  themselves  from 
priestly  rule.     I  have  said  that  they  can  make  good 
wine  at  Demirdesh.     Our  host  produced,  in  three  large 
earthen  boccals,  each  of  which  held  about  half  a  gallon, 
some  which  had  the  bouquet  and  the  flavour  of  the 
finest  Burgundy — of  the  incomparable  Vin  de  Nuity 
when  drunk  on  the  spot,  without  its  having  suffered 
either  land  or  sea  carriage.    The  dame  of  the  house 
"  waited  courteous  upon  all."    This  disturbed  our  Eu- 
ropean gallantry ;  but  it  was  Asiatic  usage,  it  was  the 
custom  of  the  country,  and  it  was  useless  to  say  any- 
thing about  it.     With  her  kindred  she  would  sit  down 
to  eat;   she  would  not  mind  an  old  friend  like  the 
tchelebee,  but  she   could  not  be  seated  at  table  with 
strangers ;  so  she  moved  quickly  and  quietly  about,  and 
kept  filling  our  glasses  to  the  brim  whenever  she  saw 
daylight  in  them.     Not  long  ago  she  was  a  widow,  her 
husband  having  been  killed,  by  mistake  in  the  dark,  by 
another  Greek,  as  he  was  coming  out  of  the  door  of  the 

H  2 


iOO  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVni. 

house  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street,  where  he  had 
been  spending  a  merry  evening.     The  assassin  was  so 
penitent,  that  he  forgave  the  enemy  he  had  intended  to 
kill.    No  malice  against  his  unfortunate  victim  had  ever 
existed ;  on  the  contrary,  the  two  had  been  good  friends ; 
it  was  a  mistake,  and  that  was  all  I     He  mourned  for 
the  deed,  he  put  himself  forward  as  the  friend  and  pro- 
tector of  the  widow,  he  did  penance,  he  made  a  dona- 
tion to  the  church  and  to  the  village  school,  and  the 
whole  matter  was  hushed  up.    Where  would  have  been 
the  good  of  bringing  Khodjk  Arab  and  his  tufekjees 
into  the  village?     What  could  Turkish  justice  do  in 
such  a  case  ?     They  would  only  make  it  a  means  of 
extorting  money.    Unless  the  widow  or  some  of  the  near 
blood  relations  put  themselves  forward  as  accusers,  no 
inquiries  would  be  made;  and  we  were  assured  that 
none  ever  had  been  made!     The   buxom  and  well- 
looking,  and  by  no  means  poor  widow,  got  another  hus- 
band at  the  end  of  the  year  of  mourning,  and  an  active 
handsome  husband  too.   He  was  some  few  years  younger 
than  herself,  but  they  lived  very  happily  together.    Out 
of  deference  to  her  religious  scruples,  he  abstained  from 
the  good  things  set  before  us  while  she  was  present ;  but 
when  her  back  was  turned,  or  whenever  she  went  out  of 
the  room,   "  on  hospitable  cares  intent,"  he  ate  of  the 
fowls  and  partridges  without  any  remorse  of  conscience, 
whispering  in  our  ears  that  the  Greeks  were  great  fools 
to  spoil  their  stomachs  and  health  by  such  long  fasts, 
and  that  the  priests  were  rogues  for  enjoining  them  to 
do  so. 

It  seemed  curious  and  contradictory  that  the  Greeks 
should  choose  this  high  fast  as  the  best  season  for  mar- 


■  *llll»      .»>» 


Chap.  XVIU.    GREEK  WEDDINGS  AT  DEMIRDESH.  101 

lying,  but  so  it  was.  There  were  no  fewer  than  five 
weddings  now  in  course  of  celebration  in  this  village  of 
Demirdesh.  The  ceremonies  had  commenced  yesterday 
morning,  and  would  continue,  with  no  interruption  ex- 
cept for  a  few  hours'  sleep,  until  to-morrow  at  midnight, 
or,  mayhap,  a  few  hours  longer.  A  deputation,  headed 
by  two  tchorbajees,  came  to  invite  us  to  all  the  mar- 
riages. After  dinner,  and  coffee  and  tchibouques,  we 
went  to  one  of  them.  The  house  was  full  of  company. 
Down  stairs  were  the  poorer,  and  up  stairs  the  richer 
sort;  but,  whether  down  or  up,  they  all  seemed  to  be 
well  provided  with  crassi  and  raki.  Two  priests  were 
very  busy  in  pouring  out  the  drink — by  no  means  neg- 
lecting to  partake  of  it  In  the  principal  room  up  stairs 
the  bride  stood  in  a  comer,  with  her  back  to  a  wall,  her 
feet  on  the  divan  or  broad  sofa,  and  her  face  and  a  good 
part  of  her  person  completely  concealed  under  a  thick 
glittering  veil  of  clinquant  and  gold  tinsel  cut  into  long 
shreds.  She  stood  motionless  like  a  statue.  We  could 
not  make  out  how  she  breathed,  or  how  she  could  stand 
so  long  in  that  crowded  and  heated  room,  in  that  one 
posture,  without  moving  so  much  as  her  hands,  and  even 
without  speaking.  The  nearer  a  bride  brings  herself  to 
the  condition  of  a  statue,  the  more  chaste  and  perfect  is 
her  performance  considered.  The  bridegroom  sat  at  the 
opposite  side  of  the  room  in  great  state  and  solemnity, 
being  waited  upon  by  his  comparos  or  bridesman,  and 
receiving  the  compliments  and  felicitations  of  his  friends, 
and  of  all  the  men  of  the  village,  and  of  not  a  few  who 
came  from  neighbouring  Greek  villages.  All  his  male 
friends  kissed  him  on  the  cheeks,  first  on  one  side  and 
then  on  the  other.     None  of  the  men  approached  the 


102  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIII. 

bride :  it  would  have  been  a  breach  of  decency  to  do  so. 
The  happy  man,  who  wore  a  very  decorous  and  inno- 
cently serious  face,  was  a  sturdy,  handsome,  Turkish- 
looking  fellow,  with  very  long  and  thick  mustachios^ 
wearing  a  very  bright  white  turban  with  blue  stripes, 
interlaced  with  narrow  shreds  of  clinquant.  All  the 
members  of  either  family,  as  well  as  the  comparos, 
sported  tinsel  in  their  head-gear.  As  they  glided  about 
the  room,  the  tinsel  streamed  in  the  air  like  the  tails  of 
comets.  Three  hired  musicians  were  squatted  on  their 
heels  at  the  lower  end  of  the  room  near  the  doorway, 
one  tom-tomming  upon  a  small  double  drum  or  kettle- 
drum, which  rested  upon  the  floor,  and  the  two  others 
blowing  pipes,  which  in  shape  resembled  small  clarionets, 
but  which  in  sound  were  far  more  shrill  and  ear-piercing. 
They  thumped  and  they  blew  with  astonishing  vigour. 
When  they  paused  for  a  minute,  new  spirit  was  put  into 
them  by  small  glasses  of  raki,  donations  of  half-piastre 
pieces  from  the  company  assembled,  hugs  and  kisses, 
and  enthusiastic  commendations  of  their  strength  and 
skill.  The  music  seemed  to  us  to  be  all  Turkish,  or  no 
music  at  all — a  mere  continuity  of  noise.  There  was 
no  making  out  anything  like  an  air :  it  squeaked  and 
screamed,  rattled  and  thumped  on,  for  long  periods  of 
time,  without  a  break  or  a  variation  ;  yet  all  the  com- 
pany, elated  by  raki,  seemed  to  enjoy  the  music  ex- 
ceedingly— enthusiastically.  They  were  all  very  merry, 
very  happy  and  friendly,  and  to  us  very  polite ;  but  an 
easy  natural  politeness  is  as  common  to  Greeks  of  all 
classes  as  it  is  unknown  to  the  Armenians.  The  bride 
was  as  yet  a  nymphe^  but  by  to-morrow  she  would  be  a 
wife,  and  then  she  would  show  her  face,  which  had  been 


».  1^  1> 


Chap.  XVIII.         STATISTICS  AT  DEMIRDESH.  103 

concealed  ever  since  yesterday  morning.  After  staying 
for  about  an  hour,  and  partaking  of  roast-chesnuts, 
parched  peas,  raisins  and  sugar-plums,  and  drinking  joy 
to  the  house  and  prosperity  to  this  union,  and  giving  a 
few  piastres  to  die  indefatigable  musicians,  we  returned 
to  our  quiet  luxurious  quarters. 

That  night  the  rain  came  down  in  a  deluge.  The 
next  day  it  was  cold,  with  heavy  rain  and  sleet.  Over 
at  Brusa  it  was  snowing  gloriously  I  The  high-priest 
Olympus  had  covered  all  his  broad  shoulders  and  ma- 
jestic trunk  with  a  white  mantle.  But  had  the  weather 
been  ever  so  fine,  our  host  and  hostess  and  our  other 
Demirdesh  friends  would  not  have  heard  of  our  depar- 
ture to-day.  We  must  stay  and  see  more  of  their  mar- 
riages. The  weddings  would  not  be  lucky  if  tehelebee 
John  went  away  before  the  festivities  were  all  over. 
He  did  not  require  pressing. 

Yesterday  evening  I  had  put  a  few  questions  to  two 
of  the  tchorbajees  who  seemed  to  be  sensible  men,  and 
ratiier  statistical^  notwithstanding  their  having  spent  the 
whole  day  and  the  day  before  in  tippling.  This  morn- 
ing five  of  die  tchorbajees,  h  testa  fresca^ — with  cool 
heads, — came  to  wait  upon  us,  to  pay  their  respects  and 
to  explain  in  a  quiet  manner  the  oppressions  under  which 
Aey  laboured.  They  were  introduced  by  an  old  friend, 
a  right  merry  and  jovial  Demirdeshote,  by  name  Apos- 
tolos,  but  called  fur  shortness  Stolio,  an  accomplished 
pupil  of  our  tehelebee,  a  determined  and  expert 
sportsman. 

The  five  tchorbajees  or  primates  were  elderly  men, 
and  very  calm  and  rational.  There  were  twelve  tchor- 
bajees in  this  villi^ ;  and  they  had  been  freely  elected ;  " 


104  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVHI. 

for  the  large  village  was  entirely  Greek,  the  people  for 
Greeks  were  wonderfully  united ;  and  they  had  often 
shown  a  spirit  before  which  even  Khodja-Arab  had 
stood  rebuked.  Demirdesh  counted  400  houses,  and 
not  one  Turk.  This  year  they  had  paid  for  kharatch 
alone  24,540  piastres :  and  of  this  money  19,860  piastres 
were  furnished  by  the  first  class  of  contributionists,  who 
pay  60  piastres ;  3600  by  the  second  class,  who  pay  30 
piastres  each ;  and  1080  by  the  third  class,  including 
youths  from  the  age  of  fourteen  to  eighteen,  who  pay 
15  piastres  each.  Of  saliane  the  village  had  this  year 
paid  32,300  piastres.  The  moncatk  paid  made  a  total 
of  more  than  5000  piastres.  (This  moncata  goes  into 
the  pockets  of  those  who  collect  the  saliane  :  it  seemed 
to  be  irregularly  levied.)  A  stipulated  sum  of  3500 
piastres  had  been  taken  from  the  people  who  had  made 
wine  this  year.  (This  belongs  to  the  rniri,  and  goes 
direct  to  government.)  If  the  people  carried  any  of 
their  wine  for  sale  to  Brusa,  they  had  to  pay  a  heavy 
octroi  duty ;  if  they  sold  their  wine  in  Ghemlik  or  any 
other  sea-port,  they  had  to  pay  an  ad  valorem  duty  of 
6  per  cent  Then  there  was  the  Intisabiey  or  transit- 
duty  of  2i  per  cent;  and  then  again  (unless  they 
would  submit  to  delay  and  a  great  loss  of  time)  they 
had  to  give  backshish  to  three  functionaries  before  they 
could  sell  their  wine  at  Brusa,  and  to  six  before  they 
could  get  it  through  a  sea-port. 

When  they  did  not  compound  for  the  miri,  as  they 
had  been  allowed  to  do  this  year,  they  had  to  pay  a  tax 
on  the  grapes  when  they  were  gathered,  and  a  second 
when  the  fruit  was  carried  to  the  wine-press.  In  this 
way  scarcely  any  profit  was  to  be  got  by  making  wine 


C^AP.  XVm.  OPPRESSIVE  TAXATION.  105 

for  sale.  Our  jovial  friend  Stolio,  the  sportsmaD,  said 
that  he  always  held  it  a  rule  to  drink  all  the  wine  he 
made ;  for  why  take  it  into  Brusa,  or  sell  it,  to  give 
more  than  half  the  money  to  the  Turks  ?  Their  sale 
of  the  grapes  as  fruit  was  rendered  unprofitable  by  the 
Pasha's  fixed  maximum  of  price.  They  had  a  great 
extent  of  the  very  best  lands  for  vineyards — gentle 
slopes,  facing  the  south,  and  with  the  very  soil  the  vine 
most  loves — and  they  might  have  extended  their  range 
far  on  either  side  of  the  village.  But  there  was  great 
discouragement  and  no  encouragement:  the  wine  com- 
monly made  was  trash ;  the  good  wine  we  procured  was 
made  for  private  consumption. 

The  vineyards,  however,  had  never  entered  so  largely 
into  the  economy  of  the  village  as  the  mulberry-gardens. 
The  grand  product  of  Demirdesh  was  silk;  its  com- 
parative prosperity  was  all  owing  to  silk ;  all  those  who 
were  rich  or  comfortably  off  had  made  their  money  by 
silk.  If  the  silk  had  been  lefl  free,  they  would  have 
cared  little  about  the  taxes  laid  on  the  vineyards,  or 
about  the  duties  levied  on  the  wine.  Our  consul  had 
told  us  that  all  the  duties  on  silk  amounted  to  22  per 
cent. :  the  tchorbajees  showed  us  that  they  exceeded  25 
per  cent. !  With  this  crushing  weight  the  Brusa  silks 
will  not  be  able  to  compete  with  the  silks  of  other 
countries.  Several  of  the  villagers  were  talking  seriously 
of  abandoning  their  mulberry-gardens,  or  of  turning 
them  into  corn-fields  or  into  fields  for  the  cultivation  of 
maize.  To  the  discouragement  of  heavy  taxation,  was 
this  year  added  the  discouragement  of  a  bad  and  Ian- 
gaishiBg  trade.  They  said  if  they  grew  grain,  it  was 
so  much  more  easy  to  settle  with  the  ushurjees :  the 


<*' 


106  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIII. 

com,  after  harvest-time  and  when  trodden  out,  was 
measured — ^the  Demirdeshotes  were  too  strong  and 
united  to  allow  of  false  measurements — and  the  Sultan's 
tenth  was  taken  in  kind.  But  in  other  commodities  it 
was  difficult  to  weigh  or  measure,  and  the  ushur  was  de- 
manded in  cash,  and  the  ushurjees  were  constantly  oTer- 
chai^ing.  The  other  day  poor  Stolio  was  charged  150 
piastres  for  extra  ushur.  He  went  over  to  Brusa,  lost 
five  days  in  dancing  attendance,  which  were  to  him 
worth  at  the  very  least  25  piastres,  gave  ten  partridges 
and  some  hares  to  the  ushurjees,  and  was  then  let  off  for 
50  piastres.  But  there  are  times  when  a  man  loses  two 
or  three  weeks  in  settling  his  accounts  with  the  blood- 
suckers ;  and  very  often  as  much  time  is  sacrificed  at 
Brusa  in  removing  some  ridiculous  or  unfounded  impu- 
tation, raised  by  Khodja-Arab  for  the  sake  of  fees,  or 
by  some  personal  enemy  out  of  sheer  spite.  There  were 
enormous  prison-dues  to  be  paid  by  debtors  before  they 
could  obtain  their  release :  the  Khodja  usually  demanded 
10  per  cent  on  the  total  amount  of  the  debt :  and  then 
there  was  a  heavy  payment  exacted  in  the  Mehkemeh, 
or  court  of  justice,  from  the  creditor  on  the  liquidation 
of  the  debt ;  so  that  between  debtor  and  creditor,  if  the 
sum  in  question  amounted  to  1000  piastres,  the  Turks 
commonly  got  from  400  to  600  piastres  of  it.  TaKes  were 
imposed  on  marriages  and  even  on  the  wedding-drums. 
The  Greeks  did  not  pay  tiiese  taxes,  but  they  had  to 
pay  heavily  for  their  licences  to  their  own  bishops  and 
priests.  Khodja-Arab  held  the  wedding-drum  mono- 
poly, and  was  said  to  make  a  good  penny  by  it  Every 
poor  Arab  or  Syrian  that  led  a  dancing  bear  about  the 
streets  had  to  pay  an  annual  tax  for  leave  to  exercise 


Chap.  XVm.  OPPRESSIVE  TAXATION.  107 

his  profession.  This  is  the  practice  everywhere:  a 
bear-ward  at  Ccmstantinople  or  Adrianople  must  pay 
as  at  Brusa.  The  Khodjk  drew  a  considerable  revenue 
irom  Uie  public  Turkish  women  at  Brusa,  and  raised  a 
still  more  execrable  tax  upon  the  kutcheks,  or  dancing 
boys.*  In  the  strict  letter  of  the  Mussulman  law,  and 
in  the  expositions  of  fanciful  travellers  like  Mr.  David 
Urquhart,  the  taxes  in  Turkey  are  few  and  simple ;  but 
in  practice  they  are  countless  and  complicated.  We 
could  scarcely  discover  anything  wholly  free  from  the 
fiscal  grip*  Oil -mills  were  a  government  monopoly, 
corn-mills  were  taxed,  wool  was  taxed,  &c.  &c.  The 
duty  on  successions  to  landed  property,  &c.  was  taken 
from  die  Greeks  at  the  rate  of  10  per  cent,  and  when 
they  had  paid  this  to  the  Turks,  they  had  usually  to 
pay  something  more  to  their  bishop,  who  always  bought 
his  place,  giving  part  of  the  purchase-money  to  the 
Turks, 

The  Demirdeshotes  could  generally  keep  their  own ; 
but  in  the  smaller  villages  in  the  plain,  where  the  Greeks 
were  mixed  with  the  Turks,  there  was  very  oflen  a 
scramble  for  lands  and  fields,  vineyards,  and  mulberry- 
gardens  when  a  Greek  died.  An  Osmanlee  would  say 
"  This  field  is  mine,  for  everybody  knows  it  belonged 

*  A  street  at  the  east  end  of  the  town  of  Brusa  (through  which  we  had 
always  to  pass  on  our  way  to  Hadji  Haivat)  was  filled  with  public  women. 
They  affected  neither  concealment  nor  decency.  Only  at  the  approach  of 
the  holy  month  of  Bamazan  Khodjk-Arab  seized  them  all,  and  threw  them 
into  an  old  prison  for  females  which  existed  in  the  Hiasar  or  on  the  old 
Acropolis  of  Brusa.  When  the  fast  was  over  they  were  let  out  to  ply  their 
trade  as  before.  The  annual  incarceration  gave  the  Khodjk  great  facilities 
for  collecting  his  tribute.  In  a  cofTee-house  at  the  end  of  the  street  of 
women  the  dancing  boys,  who  were  not  molested  at  Bamazan,  or  at  any 
other  season,  kept  their  infamous  rendezvous.  Morning  and  evening,  they 
were  always  to  be  seen  there. 


108  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XVIII. 

to  my  grandfather."  Another  would  say  that  this 
garden  was  his  because  his  father  had  cultivated  it ;  and 
where  title-deeds  were  in  Turkish,  or  non-existent,  and 
where  Turkish  law  was  to  decide  upon  Turkish  evi- 
dence, one  may  imagine  that  the  course  of  justice  did 
not  run  very  smooth.  "  But,"  said  one  of  our  com- 
pany, "  we  shall  not  be  long  troubled  in  this  way,  for 
the  Turks  are  disappearing  from  among  us."  "  Ay  1 " 
rejoined  our  jovial  sportsman  Stolio,  "we  have  more 
than  four  hundred  houses  here  in  Demirdesh,  and, 
thank  God  I  there  is  not  a  Turk  among  us  I " 

The  Tanzimaut  prohibited  corveeSy  but  forced  labour 
was  often  extorted  from  the  villagers  of  the  plain,  as 
well  as  from  those  of  Musal.  Their  money-orders,  made 
payable  at  Brusa,  were  hardly  ever  paid  at  all ;  and 
when  any  payment  was  made  Cabackji  Oglou  and  the 
Kehayah  Bey  took  an  enormous  joer  centage. 

If  the  peasants  murmured  they  received  abuse  and  got 
into  trouble — very  likely  into  prison.  Hardly  any  of 
the  poor  people  (whether  Osmanlees  or  Rayahs)  who 
had  toiled  hard  at  the  time  of  Abdul  Medjid's  visit  to 
smoothen  the  road  between  Moudania  and  Brusa,  had 
ever  been  paid  for  the  tickets  which  had  been  given 
them. 

By  the  Tanzimaut  an  end  was  to  be  put  to  all  djere- 
miehsy  or  arbitrary  fines.  These  djeremiehs  had  been 
the  cause  of  many  Jeremiads.  On  a  false  accusation, 
which  the  men  in  authority  frequently  did  not  even 
condescend  to  explain,  respectable  men  were  fined,  and 
often  tortured,  until  they  paid  the  amount  of  the  mulct ; 
whole  villages  were  fined  for  the  transgressions  of  any 
one  of  the  community  who  was  too  poor  to  pay  himself, 


Chap.  XVm.     CRUSfflNG  RATE  OF  LNTTEEEST.  109 

and  very  often  for  the  merest  accident,  or  for  an  occur- 
rence in  which  no  one  in  the  village  had  anything  to  do. 
Some  young  men  belonging  to  a  village  near  Demir- 
desh  were  amusing  themselves  by  firing  at  a  mark  with 
smallshot :  some  of  their  shot  happened  to  strike  a  piece 
of  the  Sultan's  ship^timber,  which  was  lying  on  the  road- 
side, waiting  for  oxen  to  drag  it  on :  as  the  tree  had  all 
its  thick  bark  on  it,  not  the  slightest  injury  could  have 
been  done  to  the  wood ;  but  here  was  a  fine  opportunity 
for  a  djeremieh,  and  the  village  to  which  the  young  men 
belonged  was  fined  to  the  tune  of  12,000  piastres ;  and 
as  the  tchorbajees  could  not  pay  the  money  at  once,  an 
enormous  interest  was  clapped  upon  it,  and  they  were 
commanded  to  pay  by  instalments.  It  was  added  to 
other  village  debts,  the  settlement  of  which  being  left  to 
the  tchorbajees,  seemed  never  to  be  decreased,  although 
the  people  were  always  paying  something.  Of  late  there 
had  been  none  of  these  djeremiehs ;  but  the  people  had 
not  been  relieved  from  the  burthens  imposed  by  the  old 
ones,  however  linjust  they  might  have  been. 

Our  five  tchorbajees  assured  us  that  even  this  village 
of  Demirdesh,  which  has  long  been  considered  the  most 
industrious  and  most  prosperous  one  in  the  Brusa  plain, 
was  falling  head  and  ears  into  debt ;  that,  except  eight 
or  nine  families,  all  the  people  were  deep  in  debt  already ; 
that  there  had  been  a  rapidly  ascending  taxation  ;  and 
that  twenty  years  ago  the  village  did  not  pay  much  n)ore 
than  one-third  of  what  it  was  now  paying  I  The  most 
crushing  woe  of  all  was  the  enormous  rate  of  interest. 
On  the  best  security,  with  the  joint  guarantee  of  the 
twelve  tchorbajees,  money  was  not  to  be  had  under  25 
per  cent     The  paying  time — ^the  blackest  day  in  the 


110  TUBKEY  ANI>  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIII. 

Greek  calendar — is  the  15th  of  August,  O.  S.  If  they 
cannot  pay  then,  2^  per  cent,  per  month,  is  added  to  the 
original  interest 

They  pointed  out  three  remedies  for  their  evils. — 
1.  That  the  villagers  should  be  allowed  to  contract  or 
compound  by  themselves  with  government  for  their  own 
ushurs,  without  being  subjected  to  the  farmers  of  the 
revenue.  2.  That  important  reductions  should  be  made 
on  the  silk  duties,  and  on  one  or  two  of  the  taxes. 
3.  That  by  a  national  or  imperial  bank,  or  by  some 
other  means,  money  should  be  made  procurable  at  a 
more  moderate  interest— Their  eyes  glistened  at  a  hint 
I  threw  out  that  it  might  be  possible  to  bring  down  the 
rate  of  interest  to  10  per  cent  per  annum.  "  With 
that,"  said  one  of  the  primates,  "  and  with  reduction  on 
the  single  article  of  silk,  we  might  rally.  What  with 
presents  to  this  man  and  that,  and  what  with  the  time 
lost  in  raising  a  little  money,  our  interest  even  here  is 
really  at  the  rate  of  ^  per  cent  With  capital  our 
people  could  extend  their  cultivation.  You  see  the 
plenty  of  land  that  lies  all  round  us  untouched.  Our 
Demirdeshotes  are  not  lazy  men.  Nor  are  they  turbu- 
lent men.  They  want  no  revolutions  or  great  changes. 
If  justice  were  fairly  administered  between  them,  they 
could  live  very  well  with  their  Turkish  neighbours,  for, 
generally,  the  Turks  here  who  are  not  connected  in  any 
way  with  the  government,  or  with  the  Pasha  of  Brusa,  are 
not  bad  people  to  live  with.  Our  men  would  work  with 
a  heart  if  they  were  not  over-taxed,  and  eaten  up  by  the 
ushurjees  and  the  Armenian  sera% ;  and  if  these  evils 
were  removed,  the  Demirdeshotes  would,  in  a  few  years, 
be  able  to  pay  twice  over  that  which  they  now  pay  to 


Chap.  XVin.       A  RAPACIOUS  GREEK  BISHOP.  Ill 

the  Sultan,  and  without  feeling  it  But  if  things  run  on 
in  their  present  course,  not  a  man  of  us  but  will  be  glad 
to  see  any  rerolution,  or  change,  or  foreign  conquest" 
The  whole  tone  of  these  men  was  moderate,  and  towards 
the  young  Sultan  sufficiently  respectful. 

Until  one  of  our  companions  led  them  to  the  point,  they 
did  not  tell  a  little  story  which  is  a  pretty  illustration  of 
Mr.  Urquhart*s  positions,  taken  up  on  the  ground  of  the 
independence  and  dignity  of  the  ^'  Amphictyonic  Coun- 
cils," or  the  strength  and  independence  of  municipal 
institutions  in  Turkey.  Only  the  other  day  six  of  the 
tchorbajees  of  Demirdesh  were  summoned  to  Brusa, 
were  there  put  under  arrest,  and  kept  four-and-twenty 
hours  in  confinement,  on  account  of  some  alleged  defi- 
ciency in  the  capitation-tax  of  the  village  I 

We  paid  a  few  visits  with  our  tchelebee  to  some  of 
his  old  friends  in  Demirdesh.  These  houses  were  all 
comfortable  within.  Hadji  Maria,  a  fair  dame,  who 
had  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  had  a  residence 
which  would  have  been  quite  charming  but  for  the  open 
cloaca  maxima  in  the  street  A  villager,  who  ought  to 
have  been  married  last  Saturday  with  the  other  five, 
came  into  the  house  with  rather  a  ruefiil  countenance. 
Had  he  been  at  the  weddings  ?  No.  He  had  bought 
to  be  at  his  own,  and  was  sad  of  heart  I  He  wanted 
money  to  buy  a  permission  to  be  married.  He  was 
very  poor  \  his  affianced  was  an  orphan,  and  as  poor  as 
himself — which  was  saying  a  great  deal.  All  things 
had  been  arranged ;  but  the  hungry  Greek  Bishop  over 
at  Brusa  had  discovered  that  the  contracting  parties 
were,  in  some  sort  or  other,  cousins.  The  degree  of 
consanguinity  was  vert/  remote ;  others  had  married  who 


112  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Cha.p.  XVIU. 

were  much  more  nearly  related ;  but  the  Bishop  had 
become  very  scrapulous,  and  would  not  give  the  licence 
or  necessary  permission  for  less  than  1000  piastres,  the 
usual  marriage-fee  being  only  18  piastres.  Sotiri 
pleaded  his  poverty,  the  poor  and  orphan  state  of  his 
affianced,  the  length  of  time  that  they  had  been  attached 
to  each  other,  without  the  slightest  notion  that  they  were 
loving  within  the  prohibited  degrees.  The  Bishop  was 
so  far  moved  by  these  representations,  that  he  consented 
to  take  500  piastres.  But  he  could  not  square  accounts 
with  Heaven  for  less.  Sotiri  must  bring  him  the  500 
piastres,  or  must  not  marry.  Hadji  Maria  and  our 
hostess  thought  that  the  Despotos  would  take  250  if  it 
were  offered  in  ready  money.  Stolio  thought  that  the 
old  klepthe  would  give  the  licence  for  50  piastres,  and 
ought  on  no  account  to  have  more.  The  transaction 
had  set  the  impatient  Sotiri  thinking.  He  asked  what 
Turkish  money,  or  any  other  coin,  could  have  to  do 
with  religious  canons? — whether,  if  his  marriage  were 
wrong  in  the  sight  of  Heaven,  his  paying  money  to  the 
Bishop  could  make  it  right  ?  Whether,  if  he  committed 
a  murder,  or  other  deadly  sin,  the  Bishop  could  really 
secure  his  pardon  in  Heaven  by  taking  piastres  from 
him  on  earth  ?  All  the  men  of  our  party  treated  the 
character  of  the  Bishop  with  very  little  respect,  saying 
that  he  never  thought  of  anything  but  how  to  eat  the 
grushes ;  and  that  their  priests,  in  a  little  way,  were  as 
bad  as  the  Bishop  I  This,  in  Greek  peasants  of  Asia 
Minor,  looked  like  intellectual  emancipation  and  pro- 
gress. But,  when  they  cease  to  respect  their  clergy, 
whom  will  they  respect?  When  the  superstition  is 
gone,  what  religion  will  remain  ?     Everywhere  I  saw 


Chap.  XVIH.       GREEK  CHURCH  AND  SCHOOL.  113 

some  symptoms  of  the  contempt  into  which  the  Greek 
priesthood  was  falling.  In  many  instances  contempt 
was  allied  with  hatred.  This  struck  most  of  my  friends 
who  had  resided  any  length  of  time  in  Turkey  and  had 
travelled  about  the  country  with  open  eyes  and  open 
ears.  The  Greeks  complained  that  when  they  had  paid 
all  their  taxes  to  the  Turks,  they  had  constantly  to  pay 
some  tax  or  other  to  their  church ;  that  the  priests  were 
always  putting  their  hands  in  their  pockets. 

A  Greek  said  to  Bishop  Southgate,  "  Why  should  I 
go  to  church  ?  The  priests  rob  me  of  my  money.  I  can 
get  nothing  from  them  without  a  fee."  "  He  was  a  poor 
and  ignorant  man,*^  adds  the  Bishop,  ^^  but  he  had  learned 
to  look  upon  the  whole  business  of  public  worship  as  a 
mercenary  system,  supported  by  the  clergy  for  no  better 
end  than  to  sustain  their  own  influence,  and  extort  money 
from  the  people."* 

After  our  visits  in  the  village,  we  went  to  the  Greek 
church  and  school.  The  church,  built  only  a  few  years 
ago,  is  spacious  and  (within)  not  inelegant,  although  the 
columns,  and  nearly  all  the  other  portions  of  it,  are 
merely  of  wood,  painted,  grained,  and  varnished.  It  is 
dedicated  to  the  Fanagia,  or  Virgin  Mary.  Its  prede- 
cessor was  dedicated  to  St  George,  but  being  burned 
down  it  was  deemed  prudent  to  choose  more  powerful 
protection.  The  school,  which  had  also  been  built 
quite  recently,  stood  close  by  the  church.  The  school- 
room was  large,  airy,  and  altogether  good;  and  there 
were  convenient  lodgings  attached  for  the  schoolmaster 
and  his  family.  The  schoolmaster  was  not  a  priest. 
He  was  regularly,  and  even  liberally  paid ;  and  I  believe 

•  •  Visit  to  the  Syrian  Church/  «feo.,  p.  18. 
VOL.  II.  1 


114  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVm. 

he  had  a  mulberry-garden,  which  was  cultivated  for  him 
by  his  pupils  and  the  young  men  of  the  village.  On 
account  of  the  wedding-feasts  the  school  was  thinly  at- 
tended, and  discipline  was  relaxed  to-day :  about  twenty 
little  urchins,  boys  and  girls,  were  playing  and  making 
a  noise.  When  full  the  school  counts  about  a  hundred 
pupils  of  both  sexes.  The  school-books  we  examined 
were  chiefly  extracts  from  the  New  Testament,  in 
modern  Greek,  which  varied  very  little  from  the  ancient. 
The  poorest  of  these  Greeks  were  anxious  to  have  their 
children  taught  reading  and  writing. 

We  passed  by  a  house  where  there  was  music  within, 
and  were  invited  and  pressed  to  enter.  It  was  one  of 
the  houses  of  the  five  weddings,  and  of  the  better  sort 
Many  people  were  sitting  eating  and  drinking  on  the 
first  floor.  Up  stairs,  in  a  well-carpeted,  neatly  fiir- 
nished  room — the  best  of  a  suite  of  apartments — we 
found  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  the  busy  comparoSy 
and  rather  a  numerous  party,  consisting  of  the  best  or 
most  prosperous  families  of  the  village.  There  were 
no  priests  up  stairs ;  the  priests  were  below,  where  the 
raki  toas  1  They  were  scarcely  considered  society  good 
enough  for  the  elite.  The  bride,  wj^ese  face  was  now 
uncovered,  and  who  served  us  i^th  coffee  and  sweet- 
meats, was  not  very  pretty,  but  her  dress  was.  She 
wore  a  short  jacket  or  bodice  of  the  very  finest  tur- 
quoise-blue Cashmere,  and  a  silk  skirt  of  a  bright  fawn 
colour  with  silver  stripes,  very  full,  rich,  and  beautiful* 
She  was  young,  very  modest,  and  seemed  very  good- 
natured.  The  long  gold  tinsel  veil  which  hung  over 
her  face  and  bust  yesterday,  was  now  hanging  down  her 
back :  her  sister,  a  little  girl  about  twelve  years  old, 


Chap.  XVlll.  WEDDING  VISITS.  115 

was  dancing  and  gliding  about  the  room  with  a  long 
and  very  full  tail  of  silver  tinsel.  The  happy  man  did 
not  look  80  happy  as  he  might  have  done ;  he  was  in- 
deed very  sober,  demure,  and  stupid :  but  his  comparos, 
who  did  all  the  duties  of  hospitality  for  him,  was  right 
merry,  and  jolly,  and  radiant ;  and,  though  so  early  in 
the  day,  he  was  already  fsi  gone  in  wine  and  raki,  for 
one  of  his  duties  consisted  in  tippling  with  every  visitor. 
This  is  indeed  imperative  on  every  comparos ;  so  that 
to  be  a  good  bridesman  among  these  Greeks  one  ought 
to  have  a  strong  head  and  a  strong  and  capacious  sto« 
mach.  We  were  warmly  pressed  by  all  present  to 
return  to  the  scene  of  festivity  in  the  evening. 

After  dinner  we  went  first  of  all  to  the  poorer  wed- 
ding we  had  attended  last  night,  and  found  the  same 
feasting  and  drinking,  drumming  and  piping.  The 
sposa  was  now  unveiled,  showing  what  was  rather  a 
pretty  face.  She  kissed  our  hands,  and  took  from  each 
of  us  a  present  of  ten  piastres :  she  had  been  receiving 
presents  all  the  day.  On  the  third  day  this  is  the 
common  practice  in  ''houses  where  things  are  so^o." 
The  donations  pay  for  the  expenses  of  the  feast,  and 
sometimes  leave  a  good  surplus  to  give  the  poor  young 
people  a  start  in  life.  We  drank  healths  to  husband 
and  wife  and  all  the  company,  gave  a  little  more  back- 
shish to  the  two  musicians,  and  then  went  to  the  ''  mar- 
riage in  fashionable  life."  Here  we  found  la  crSme  de 
la  crSme  seated  at  supper. 

We  smoked  tchibouques  in  an  outer  room  until  the 
company  had  finished  their  repast  When  the  com- 
pany had  all  come  forth  from  the  supper-room  there 
fi^llowed  health-drinking,  coffee-drinking,  a  very  loud 

i2 


116  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XVIU. 

singing  in  ehorus,  and  then  dancing.  The  ladies  were 
comme  il  faut^  but  the  men  were  all  powerfully  re- 
freshed, or  all  except  the  husband.  The  comparos  was 
now  very  far  gone  indeed,  but  he  was  still  active  and 
alert  with  limbs  and  tongue,  and  capable  of  supporting 
a  great  deal  more  drink.  He  was  a  fine  strong  fellow, 
with  a  handsome,  manly,  open  countenance:  he  was 
no  habitual  drunkard,  but  an  industrious,  intelligent, 
cheerful,  well-conducted  young  man:  he  was  as  he 
W2»,  only  because  he  was  comparos — he  was  drunk  in 
tiie  way  of  duty.  The  bridesman  that  should  go  to 
bed  sober  would  be  held  in  scorn,  and  bring  bad  luck 
upon  the  marriage.  His  heart  was  overflowing  with 
kindness  to  all ;  to  us  he  vowed  an  eternal  friendship 
good  twenty  times  over. 

In  addition  to  the  drums  and  the  shrill  pipe  there 
were  here  a  Greek  guitar  and  a  fiddle.  The  musicians 
sat  on  their  heels  at  the  lower  end  of  the  room ;  the 
music  was  not  materially  difierent  from  that  we  had 
suflered  last  night,  but  the  melody  of  some  of  the  songs 
was  plaintive  and  pretty,  and  a  few  of  the  loud  cho- 
ruses were  rather  spirit-stirring.  There  is  not  a  Turk 
among  us!  Who  is  afraid  of  the  Turks  now?  Not 
we  Demirdeshotes  who  are  singing  the  Greek  Marseil- 
laise and  laughing  at  the  Turks*  beards  !  Well  sup- 
plied with  drink,  and  nuts  and  apples,  and  black  olives 
and  bread,  the  poorer  sort  below  were  as  high  in  spirit 
as  we  were,  and  quite  as  merry.  The  Serto^  or  Bing- 
dance,  was  danced  many  times,  and  though  it  seemed 
to  us  the  very  perfection  of  monotony,  it  evidently 
gave  great  pleasure  to  the  performers,  most  of  whom 
sang  the  slow  air  as  they  danced  to  it.     We  kept  it  up 


Chap.  XVm.    GREEK  AND  TURKISH  MARRIAGES.  117 

to  the  small  hours,  and  when  we  withdrew  the  com- 
paros  accompanied  as  as  far  as  the  street  door,  and 
thence  we  went  off  to  our  quarters,  preceded  by  four 
immense  paper  lanterns.  It  was  not  that  lanterns  were 
needed  here,  for  there  was  no  Turkish  police,  and 
there  was  a  lull  bright  moon ;  but  the  villagers  would 
show  us  respect  and  honour. 

In  justice,  arid  in  honour  to  these  poor  Greeks,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  we  saw  nothing  revolting  or 
very  coarse  among  them.     The  men,  being  all  more  or 
less  inebriated,  could    have  worn  no  mask;  we  saw 
them  in  their  natural,  undisguised  state.     In  vino  Ve- 
ritas.    And  there  is  truth  also  in  raki.     They  showed 
a  gentleness   and  deference   to  the  women,  which  is 
about  the  best  sign  of  civilization.     Except  in  the  tip- 
pling, the  ladies  had  the  principal  part  in  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  evening,  and  were  allowed  to  direct  them 
all.     They  were  merry  and  modest.     The  becoming 
bashiulness  of  the  bride  was  tenderly  respected.    Who- 
ever has  had  the  misfortune  to  witness  the  festivities 
of  a  Turkish  marriage  will  feel  the  wide  difference! 
There  the  women  are  all  separated  from  the  men,  if 
not  shut  up  in  the  harem :  the  chief  amusement  con- 
sists in  the  indecent,  revolting  exhibition  of  hired  pos* 
ture-making  women  and  dancing  boys.     The  porch  of 
Hymen  is  foul  and  horrible  with  the  associations  of  the 
Seven  Cities  of  the  Plain. 

The  following  morning,  December  the  21st,  the 
rains  were  over,  the  sky  was  blue  and  bright,  and  the 
weather  quite  mild ;  but  Olympus  had  more  snow  on 
his  side  than  we  had  yet  seen.  Our  friends  would 
have  had  us  stay  yet  another  day ;  but,  after  a  good 


118  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIH. 

breakfast  and  an  affectionate  leave-taking,  we  mounted 
our  horses  for  Ghemlik  at  II .30  p.m.  The  road  was 
of  course  the  same  we  had  travelled  in  coming  from 
Constantinople  to  Brusa,  but  the  late  rains  had  re- 
duced it  to  a  most  wretched  condition  ;  it  was  slippery, 
rotten,  broken,  and  muddy ;  in  many  places  the  thick, 
stiff  mud  reached  to  the  knees  of  our  horses,  and  in 
several  hollows  we  nearly  stuck  fast  But  winter  had 
only  just  commenced ;  the  road  would  be  a  great  deal 
worse  in  a  week  or  two ;  and  in  February  and  March 
it  would  be  altogether  impassable.  People  then  take  a 
track  over  the  Katerlee  Mountains,  which  leads  them 
far  round  about,  and  is  rough  and  rocky,  and  often 
covered  with  deep  snow.  We  rode  into  Ghemlik  at 
the  hour  of  evening  prayer.  Kir-Yani  was  no  longer 
at  his  silk-farm,  where  he  had  lodged  us  before;  he 
had  finished  the  repairs  of  his  consular  mansion,  and 
was  installed  there.  It  was  quite  a  splendid  residence, 
with  glazed  window-frames  for  every  window,  doors 
painted  sky-blue  and  varnished,  deal  floors  that  did  not 
shake  and  were  well  furnished — at  least  in  the  prin- 
cipal rooms— with  thick,  soft  Turkey  carpets,  divans 
(of  a  Fasha^like  breadth)  with  cushions  covered  with* 
stufl^  of  brightest  colours,  and  with  various  other  ele- 
gancies and  luxuries  which  it  would  be  tedious  to  name. 
A  flag-staff  rose  above  the  roo^  and  lus  wife  had  made 
a  dazzling  Union  Jack  to  hang  to  it  on  high  days  and 
holidays  and  critical  occasions.  But  what  Eir-Yani 
most  prided  himself  upon  were  the  royal  arms  of 
England  which  he  had  got  painted  in  his  vestibule 
close  to  the  streetdoor,  on  the  right-hand  side  as  you 
entered.     As  he  was  not  a  fvil  vice-consul,  but  only 


r 


Chap.  XVIH.  GHEMLIK— KnUTANL  119 

a  consular  agent  (without  any  very  formal  appoint- 
ment), he  had  not  thought  fit  to  exhibit  his  arms  out- 
side in  the  street  over  his  gateway ;  but  as  his  doors 
were  always  open  in  the  daytime,  the  arms  were  very 
oonspicQOus  on  the  whitewashed  wall  where  they  stood, 
and  they  had  made  quite  a  sensation  in  the  town. 
They  had  been  painted  by  a  native  genius,  the  same 
Ghemlik  house-painter  who  had  laid  on  the  sky-blues 
up  stairs.  At  a  respectful  distance  from  the  crown, 
and  at  a  very  considerable  distance  from  each  other, 
lion  and  unicorn  stood  with  their  paws  in  the  air,  like 
poodles  when  they  beg :  they  were  clearly  well-man- 
nered beasts  and  pacitic. 

Poor  Kir-Yanil  Triumph  sat  upon  his  crest;  he 
was  getting  up  in  the  world;  his  joy  was  so  great  that 
it  drove  all  his  Italian  vocables  out  of  his  head ;  he 
could  only  tell  us  in  Greek  that  we  had  come  at  the  right 
moment,  that  he  had  a  Mend  of  ours  in  his  house,  and 
that  his  honour  and  happiness  were  complete.  The 
friend  was  Mr.  Longworth,  whom  we  never  met  without 
feeling  the  happier  and  better  for  the  meeting.  He 
had  arrived  from  Constantinople,  in  the  afternoon,  with 
the  Turkish  steamboat,  on  his  way  to  pass  the  Christmas 
with  our  consul  at  Brusa.  We  dined  all  together,  in 
ease,  comfort,  and  dignity,  at  a  European-fashioned 
dining-table,  with  a  bright  French  lamp,  and  metal 
spoons  and  iron  forks,  and  other  accessories  of  civiliza- 
tion. I  fancy  it  was  the  first  time  our  host  had  been 
able  to  show  off  with  Sclat^  for  his  house  was  only  just 
finished.  A  number  of  his  Ghemlik  friends  came  to 
see  the  sight,  two  or  three  entering  the  scUle  d  manger^ 
and  the  rest  peeping  at  us  through  a  half-open  door, 


120  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIH. 

and  muttering  Greek  superlatives  of  admiration.  Kir- 
Yani's  head  touched  the  stars.  We  were  all  very  com- 
fortable that  evening,  and  he,  with  his  little  vanities 
and  importances,  was  very  amusing.  "  My  way  of 
arguing  with  the  Agha,''  said  our  fragment  of  a  consul, 
"  is  this :  I  tell  him,  *  If  you  do  not  respect  the  Majesty 
of  Great  Britain,  why  then  I  do  the  dirty  thing  by  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  and  upon  your  beard.'  The  fellow 
was  a  common  fisherman  not  long  ago,  and  he  can 
neither  write  nor  read.  When  he  bullies  me,  I  bully 
him.  If  you  try  any  other  course  with  Turks  like  him, 
you  fail,  and  get  your  own  beard  laughed  at." 

The  next  morning,  the  22nd  of  December,  our  friend 

L rode  off  for  Brusa,   and  we  went  to  visit  some 

villages  and  the  so-called  "  English  farm "  at  Tuzlar. 
Crossing  the  river  which  flows  from  Lake  Nicsea  to 
this  gulf,  and  then  the  dreadful  marshes,  we  kept  near 
the  sea-side,  and  came  in  about  an  hour  to  the  grounds 
where  Mr.  H ,  the  English  merchant  of  Constan- 
tinople, had  been  playing  Triptolemus. 

If  it  had  been  measured — which  it  never  ivas — the 
farm  might  have  been  found  to  consist  of  1800  acres, 
or  perhaps  more.  But  nearly  all  this  land  was  a  dead 
flat  between  the  sea-beach  and  the  mountains.  It  was 
the  sink  of  a  ridge  of  hills  which  formed  a  sort  of  semi- 
circle, enclosing  nearly  the  whole  of  the  estate,  except 
its  face,  which  lay  open  to  the  sea.  Under  these  hills 
the  land  was  a  bog,  and  in  many  places  the  swamps  ad- 
vanced far  into  the  plain  towards  the  sea  and  the  farm- 
buildings.  One  stream,  at  this  season  rather  copious, 
found  its  way  across  the  plain  to  the  gulf;  but  it  was 
choked  at    the  mouth  by  a  sand-bank,    and  its   bed 


Chap.  XVIH.        ENGLISH  FARM  AT  TUZLAR,  121 

was  incapable  of  carrying  off  or  receiving  a  tithe  of 
the  water  that  came  down  from  the  hills  in  rainy 
season.  Our  English  Triptolemus  had  gone  to  work 
lite  a  veritable  Turk,  beginning  at  the  wrong  end,  and 
doing  nothing  to  drain  off  the  stagnant  waters,  which 
*poison  the  air  in  the  summer  and  autumn,  and  render 
the  place  almost  uninhabitable  to  man.  The  mouth 
of  the  stream  might  easily  have  been  opened,  and  have 
been  kept  constantly  open  at  a  trifling  expense ;  and  if 
this  watercourse — ^this  main  had  been  deepened  three 
or  four  feet,  and  trenches  cut  to  carry  the  waters  to 
it,  the  ground  might  have  been  dried,  and  those  causes 
of  malaria  removed.     But  nothing  of  the  sort  was  done 

or  thought  of  by  Mr.  H ^  who  was  all  for  throwing 

away  capital  (at  first)  in  planting  and  decorating — in 
making  frills  before  he  had  got  a  shirt.     But  it  was 

an  unhappy  choice   of  locality.     If  Mr.  H had 

hunted  all  round  the  Sea  of  Marmora  for  an  unfavour- 
able spot  whereon  to  try  an  experiment,  and  for  an 
atmosphere  the  most  likely  to  kill  his  people,  he  could 
not  have  selected  a  better  place  than  this  Tuzlar.  The 
very  name  would  have  warned  a  person  who  knew  any- 
thing. The  word  means  the  "  salts "  (or  salt-pans)  ; 
and  salt  is  produced  here,  as  in  many  parts  of  Italy  and 
Spain,  by  collecting  broad  expanses  of  sea-water  on  the 
beach,  and  leaving  the  water  to  evaporate  in  the  heat 
of  the  sun.  This  evaporation  from  one  pan  alone 
suffices  to  poison  the  air  over  a  square  mile.  On  the 
Italian  coasts  the  |^ect  is  so  well  known,  that  nobody 
will  sleep  near  a  Salina  that  can  possibly  avoid  it.  But 
here,  at  Tuzlar,  as  if  there  were  not  sufficient  causes  of 
malaria  in  the  rear  and  on  the  two  flanks,  tliere  were 


122  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,         Chap.  XVIII. 

salt-works  in  front — close  under  the  noses  of  the  house 
and  outhouses  and  lodgings  for  the  labourers,  and  not 
one  Salina  or  salt-pan,  but  ninej  all  of  a  row  and  close 
together!  Thus,  blow  which  way  the  wind  would, 
from  the  sea  or  from  the  hills,  malaria  blew  over  the 
chifUik.  Then  there  were  the  swamps  lying  in  the 
hollow  between  Tuzlar  and  the  town  of  Ghemlik :  and 
everybody,  except  this  Triptolemus,  knew  that  very 
few  strangers  could  pass  jl  week  at  Ghemlik  in  July, 
August,  or  September  without  catching  the  malaria 
fever.  There  was  nothing  tempting  in  tixe  place  except 
its  low  price  and  its  vicinity  to  Constantinople.  I 
forget  the  sum  paid  for  it ;  but,  low  as  it  was,  it  was 
more  than  double  what  a  Turk  or  Greek  would  have 

given ;  and  as,  according  to  Turkish  law,  Mr.  H 

could  not  hold  landed  property,  the  purchase  was  made 
in  the  name  of  a  Perote  (a  rayah),  and  in  the  name  of 
this  Perote  such  deeds  as  existed,  ran.  I  forget  how 
many  managers  quitted  the  place  in  despair  and  with 
shattered  constitutions  before  our  tchelebee,  for  his  ill 
luck,  became  Kehayah.  An  Englishman,  who  had 
been  regularly  trained  as  a  &rmer,  gave  up  in  utter 
despair ;  and  I  think  one  if  not  two  other  Englishmen 
subsequently  made  music  to  their  own  retreat  by  the 
clattering  of  their  teeth  in  the  cold  fits  of  the  inter- 
mittent The  Greek  labourers  fled  the  place;  even 
the  Turks  would  not  stay :  none  would  remain  except  a 
few  Bulgarians ;  and  the  number  of  that  hardy,  unsus- 
ceptible race  was  diminished  by  dc^h.  Under  John^s 
administration  a  few  Greeks,  chiefly  out  of  affection  to 
him,  tried  their  fortune — and  died,  or  went  away 
desperately  sick.      The  only   things  that    grew  and 


Chap.  XVIH.  MALARIA  AT  TUZLAR.  123 

thrived  on  the  farm  were  tombstones — or  those  rough 
bits  of  rock  with  which  the  survivors  marked  the  graves 
of  the  deceased  There  was  just  one  tree  on  that  dead 
flat 

This  merchant,  who  long  ere  tiiis  must  have  been  a 
llireefold  bankrupt  if  he  had  not  known  more  about 
bales,  and  pigs  of  lead,  and  bars  of  iron,  and  rates  of 
exchange  than  he  knew  of  climate  and  agriculture, 
would  not  hear  a  word  about  the  unhealthiness  of  the 
air :  he  said  that  the  people  fell  sick  and  died  only  be- 
cause they  had  a  very  bad  diet,  and  he  improved  the 
dietary  by  sending  some  provisions  from  StambouL 
But  the  men  died,  or  sickened,  or  ran  away,  as  before. 
A  sudden  thought  struck  him.  The  Armenian  porters 
at  Constantinople — rough,  uncouth  fellows,  chiefly  from 
Lake  Van  and  those  remote  parts  of  the  empire — have 
great  strength  and  power  of  endurance :  he  had  often 
seen  them  carry  his  heavy  bales  on  their  shoulders; 
he  knew  how  much  they  could  bear  as  porters,  and 
therefore  he  concluded  that  they  could  bear  life  at 
Tuzlar,  and  make  excellent  farm-servants.  He  sent 
over  about  a  dozen.  They  were  as  strong  as  bears  and 
quite  as  rough  when  they  arrived ;  but  in  a  very  brief 
space  of  time  they  were  all  laid  prostrate,  weak  as 
rabbits,  by  the  malaria  demons  that  kept  head-quarters  . 
in  the  salt-pans  in  front  and  in  the  swamps  and  marshes 
behind.  I  &mk  three  or  four  of  them  died;  I  re- 
member perfectly  well  that  the  sick  would  not  stay,  and 
that  they  were  carried  to  a  boat  to  be  embarked  for 
Stamboul  upon  men's  shoulders — were  carried  as  they 
had  been  accustomed  to  carry  bales — so  reduced  and 
helpless  they  were. 


124  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XYin. 

Our  tchelebee  remained  with  none  but  wild  Bul- 
garians around  him  ;  and  these  were  too  few  to  attend 
to  a  tenth  part  of  the  land.  They  did  not  falsify  their 
common  reputation.  They  were  sullen,  and  brutal,  and 
at  times  bloody-minded.  There  was  an  old  Armenian 
sent  over  from  Stamboul  to  mans^e  the  financial  depart- 
ment. The  Bulgarians  said  that  he  cheated  them — 
which  was  not  at  all  unlikely — and  after  sundry  quarrels 
they  took  up  a  mortal  enmity  against  the  Armenian. 

In  this  juncture  our  friend  R.  T came  to  pass  a 

day  or  two  at  the  chifl;lik.  He  was  sitting  one  evening 
on  a  divan,  with  his  back  to  a  broad  open  window,  very 
pleasantly  employed  in  reading  one  of  Walter  Scott*s 
novels,  when  he  was  startled  by  the  loud,  near  report 
of  a  pistol  behind  him,  which  was  instantaneously  fol- 
lowed by  a  cracking  of  the  ceiling  in  the  room,  over 
his  head.  He  quitted  the  window  too  rapidly  to  do 
more  than  notice  that  two  Bulgarians  were  running 
away.  He  had  af);erwards  the  satisfaction  to  learn  that 
when  the  Bulgarians  were  seated  by  themselves  at 
supper,  one  of  them  was  overheard  to  say — "  We  mis- 
took the  English  gentleman  for  that  old  Armenian 
rogue.     What  a  pity  I" 

Mr.  H imported  foreign  seeds,  which  would  not 

grow  in  that  unreclaimed  soil,  and  English  agricultural 
instruments,  which  the  rude  Bulgarians  could  not  or 
would  not  use.  Ashamed  of  his  one  tree,  he  sent  over 
a  great  many  fruit-trees    and  ornamental  trees;  and 

(planning  grand  avenues)  he  instructed  J.  Z to 

plant  about  ten  thousand  forest-trees.  John  collected 
and  planted  about  two  thousand ;  but  there  followed  an 
unusually  dry  season,  there  was  no  water  at  hand  to 


Chap.  XVm.    THE  ENGLISH  FARM  A  FAILURE.  125 

moisten  the  roots,  and  no  labourers  to  perform  that 
office,  so  all  the  young  trees  died  at  once,  except  a  few 
which  were  broken  off  short  to  be  turned  into  bufialo- 
goads.  There  was  a  small  fountain  by  the  farm  build- 
ings, but  in  the  hot  weather  it  was  dry,  and  when  it 
flowed  the  water  was  so  foul  and  fetid  that  not  even  a 
buffido  or  a  Bulgarian  could  drink  it  The  water  for 
use  had  to  be  brought  on  arubas  from  a  distance  of  nearly 
two  miles.  In  the  summer  time  the  land,  saturated 
with  water,  shrunk  and  cracked  in  the  drying.  The 
wettest  land  of  course  cracked  and  yawned  the  most 
during  the  draught  of  summer.  The  roots  of  plants 
were  in  consequence  compressed  and  parched;  vege- 
tation was  burned  up.  John,  however,  managed  to 
grow  two  fine  crops  of  wheat ;  but  when  the  harvest 
time  came,  he  had  only  a  few  Bulgarians  to  reap 
them,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  crops  perished  on 
the  ground.  The  tchelebee,  though  deficient  in  order, 
knew  what  ought  to  be  done,  but  he  never  had  a 
sufficient  number  of  workmen  at  the  piaoper  time. 
I  dwell  upon  these  particulars  because  the  utter 
failure  of  this  miserably  managed  experiment,  on  the 
worst  site  that  could  have  been  chosen,  was  com- 
monly quoted  as  a  convincing  proof  that  a  European 
could  do  nothing  in  agriculture  in  this  country;  and 
because  the  failure  encouraged  the  country  people  to 
persevere  in  their  own  bad  system.  The  English 
chiftlik  at  Tuzlar  became  the  laughing-stock  of  the 
whole  country. 

After  his  first  injudicious  outlays,  Mr.  H was  for 

spending  nothing,  and  he  wanted  to  derive  enormous 
profits  all  at  once.     John  had  to  deal  with  a  most  law- 


126  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVUI. 

less  and  turbulent  set  of  people,*  and  with  some  rogues 
who  took  advantage  of  his  easy  temper  to  defraud 
him  of  much  money.  John,  whose  interests  were  com- 
mitted,  who  had  nearly  his  little  all  at  stake  (for  he  had 
brought  his  own  cattle  and  implements  from  Hadji- 
Haivat),  remained  until  his  wife  and  children  fell  sick, 
and  struggled  on  alone  some  months  after  their  depar- 
ture, and  long  after  all  heart  of  hope  had  quitted  him. 
But  one  night  he  threw  up  everything  in  despair, 
mounted  his  horse  and  rode  away  to  Hadji-Haivat, 
there  to  find  that  his  new  house  had  been  sadly  injured, 
and  that  nearly  everything  had  gone  to  wrack  and  ruin 
during  his  absence.  He  was  reproached  for  deserting 
a  post  which  no  other  man  would  have  kept  so  long. 
In  one  short  year  he  had  buried  thirty  of  his  labourers. 
The  old  Armenian,  who  remained  behind,  was  thought 
to  be  fever-proof,  but  at  the  time  of  our  visit  he  had 
gone  away  desperately  sick,  and  a  few  weeks  afterwards 
he  died. 

Kir-Yani,  who  had  been  managing  some  of  the  farm 
concerns,  seldom  slept  at  the  chiftlik ;  but  he  too  had 
had  the  malaria  fevers,  and  though  apparently  strong 
and  hearty,  was  suffering  a  derangement  of  liver  in  con- 
sequence of  repeated  attacks.  The  farm  was  for  sale  ; 
it  had  been  offered  to  several  Europeans,  and  Mr.  H 

*  A  Frenchman  came  to  the  farm,  an  industrious  fellow,  with  all  the 
smartness  and  intelligence  of  his  nation.  He  was  a  treasure,  a  god-send, 
but  the  Tohelebee  soon  found  out  from  his  own  frank  confession  that^e 
had  deserted  from  the  army  of  Algiers  after  murdering  his  sergeant ;  and 
one  evening  the  man  went  raving  mad  and  began  to  run  a-muck  at  all  <hi 
tho  farm.  John  disarmed  him  and  locked  him  up  all  night  in  the  dairy. 
On  the  following  morning,  his  frenzy  having  abated,  be  was  let  loose,  and 
recommended  to  decamp.  He  went  his  way,  and  no  more  was  heard  of 
him  at  Tuzlar. 


Chap.  XVUL  LEAVE-TAKINa.  127 

arhd  his  people  in  Galata  were  disposed  to  he  very  (mgry 
with  those  who  represented  the  place  us  a  pestilential  bog. 
The  house,  the  outhouses,  and  all  the  buildings,  which 
had  been  erected  by  some  Turkish  Aghk,  were  now 
falling  to  decay.  The  only  living  creatures  we  saw 
upon  the  farm  were  three  stupid  Bulgarian  youths,  about 
a  doaen  mongrel  dogs,  and  a  small  flock  of  sickly  sheep. 

Except  one  enclosure,  made  by  J.  Z six  years 

ago,  and  tolerably  well  hedged  and  ditched,  there  was 
not  an  enclosure  or  a  single  sign  of  improvement  on 
the  whole  property.  They  were  growing  a  few  small 
patches  of  com  and  flax.  We  had  nowhere  seen,  even 
among  the  Turks,  lands  so  badly  tilled. 

From  the  romantic  village  or  small  town  of  Eur- 
chumli,  we  rode  slowly  back  to  Ghemlik.  It  was  a 
bright  and  glorious  sunset — the  last  we  saw  in  Asia 
Minor;  and  it  was  a  long  while  before  we  saw  such  another 
in  Europe.  We  fared  sumptuously  at  Kir-Yani's,  and 
sat  talking  with  our  host  and  a  few  Greeks  of  the  place 
until  ten  o'clock  at  night,  when  a  gun,  fired  from  the 
Turkish  steamer,  gave  notice  that  it  was  time  to  em- 
bark. Knowing  the  Turks  were  never  true  to  time, 
we  did  not  hurry  ourselves.  When  we  got  on  board 
at  10.30,  we  found  that  the  boat  was  very  far  from 
being  ready,  and  still  farther  from  being  clean  and 
orderly.  At  11.30  the  steam  was  up;  and  then  Tche- 
lebee  John,  and  his  brother-in-law,  that  excellent  sports- 
man and  courageous  young  man.  Monsieur  L.  V ^ 

and  poor  Yorvacki,  who  had  safely  brought  our  baggage 
from  Hadji-Haivat,  reluctantly  took  their  leaves  and 
went  ashore.  We  could  not  part  with  one  of  them 
without  emotion;  but  to  part  with  the  tchelebee  was 


128  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVlll. 

an  eflFort  and  a  pang.  For  three  months  and  a  half  we 
had  been  inseparable,  and  in  all  that  time  we  never 
saw  the  smoothness  of  his  beautiful  temper  ruffled ;  we 
had  rambled  together  over  a  great  many  miles,  and  had 
slept  on  the  same  hard  floor  in  many  strange  places;  I 
had  received  from  him  the  most  valuable  services,  and 
all  the  kindness  and  attention  which,  twenty  years 
before  (when  he  was  a  schoolboy  in  England),  I  had 
received  from  his  dear  old  father,  Constantine  Zohrab ; 
we  had  grumbled  together  over  the  forlorn  state  of  the 
country  and  the  stupidity  and  corruption  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  we  had  speculated  together,  on  the  rough 
road,  on  mountain  tops,  and  in  bogs  and  marshes,  on 
the  means  of  improving  agriculture  and  the  condition 
of  the  imhappy  people. 

We  had  parted  with  Kir-Yani  on  the  beach.  Poor 
fellow!  He  was  hearty,  and  seemed  full  of  life;  he 
was  indeed  glorioso  e  trionfante  I  He  was  so  happy  in 
his  new  house,  he  had  so  many  promising  little  specula- 
tions, he  was  so  sure  that,  with  his  British  protection 
and  the  advantageous  position  he  occupied,  he  should 
make  a  decent  fortune,  and  be  enabled  to  go  to  some 
civilized  country  in  Europe  to  have  his  children  edu- 
cated. 

"  0  sommo  Dio  !    come  i  giudizj  umani 
Spesso  offuscati  son  da  un  nembo  oscuio.'^ 

Within  two  short  months  Kir-Yani,  who  grasped  my 
hand  so  heartily  on  that  beach,  was  dead  and  buried. 
He  died  of  the  effects  of  malaria  fevers,  and  bad^ 
ignorant  doctoring. 

Our  friends  might  have  stayed  longer  with  us,  for 

♦  Ariosto. 


Chap.  XVm.     PASSENGERS  IN  THE  STEAMEE.  129 

though  the  steam  was  up,  the  anchor  was  not  The 
Turks  waited  another  half-hour  and  more  for  two  dila- 
tory passengers,  Osmanlees  of  some  consequence,  as  one 
was  a  sheik  among  the  Dancing  Dervishes,  and  the 
other  was  a  mir  aUai,  or  colonel,  in  the  Sultan's  regular 
army.  They  arrived  at  last,  each  with  his  man-servant, 
and  somewhere  between  the  midnight  hour  and  one  in 
the  morning  our  anchor  was  up,  and  our  paddle-wheels 
began  to  revolve.  The  colonel  was  not  quite  a  new 
acquaintance  ;  we  had  seen  him  the  day  before  yester- 
day at  Demirdesh,  stretched  out  on  a  bench  in  the 
Greek  coffee-house,  and  suffering  from  a  most  distress- 
ing asthma.  He  had  there  called  us  to  him,  and  asked 
me  for  medicine  and  advice.  The  little  that  was  left 
of  our  drugs  was  in  the  rear  with  our  baggage  ;  and  his 
case  was  far  beyond  my  skill.  I  could  only  recommend 
him  to  sit  upright,  instead  of  lying  with  his  head  on  a 
level  with  his  heels.  He  was  a  coarse,  vulgar  man,  and 
excessively  fat.  So  soon  as  he  saw  me  in  the  cabin,  he 
called  me  to  him  with  that  concise  and  rude  ghell 
(come  I)  which  ill-bred  Turks  are  so  much  in  the  habit 
of  using  towards  their  slaves  and  Christians.  If  he  had 
not  been  sick  and  suffering,  he  might  have  ghelled  a  long 
time  ere  I  had  attended  his  summons.  He  asked  me  to 
feel  his  pulse.  It  was  now  dreadfully  full  and  feverish. 
He  told  me  that  he  had  suffered  a  martyrdom  on  the 
rough  journey  from  Demirdesh. 

A  goggle-eyed  Armenian  served  as  our  drogoman,  be- 
having with  all  humiliation  and  reverence  to  the  colonel, 
and  prefacing  my  plain,  straight-forward  Italian  with 
flourishes  and  compliments  of  his  own.  The  colonel 
asked  me  whether  his  complaint  was  very  dangerous. 

VOL.  II.  K 


)  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DE8TIHT.  Chap.  XVIII. 

old  him  that  I  believed  it  to  be  one  requiring  great 
re.  UpoD  this  he  looked  very  dismal,  and  not  at  all 
:e  a  MusBulman  resigned  to  his  kismet.  After  a 
use  he  said  very  eagerly,  "  But  is  this  an  evil  that 
Is  man  ?"  Believing  his  chief  complaint  to  be  asthma, 
told  him  that  I  had  known  many  men  to  live  to  a 
od  old  age  with  it  He  brightened  up  a  bit,  and 
3n  asked  me  the  names  of  the  best  English  hekims  to 
nsult  at  StambouL  I  gave  him  the  names  in  writii^; 
gave  me  no  thanks,  ^and  I  left  him.  These  are 
rtainly  not  the  manners  of  a  Turkish  gentleman,  but 
ntlemen,  as  I  have  repeatedly  hinted,  are  becoming 
irce  in  the  Sultan's  dominions.  The  rest  of  the 
bin  passengers  were  a  gentlemanly  young  Frenchman, 
ree  Xeuin^'n^-Frank  ladies  of  Pera,  and  four  Arme- 
in  traders  besides  the  one  I  have  mentioned.  The 
bin  was  hot  and  almost  suffocating,  for  they  had 
odled  a  coal  fire  in  the  iron  stove.  How  the  asth- 
itic  colonel  bore  it  I  could  not  understand.  We  went 
on  deck  to  breathe  fresh  air,  but  as  we  approached 
reak-Nose  Fcnnt  at  the  head  of  the  gulf,  which  is 
posed  to  the  atmospheric  influences  of  the  stormy 
lack  Sea,  the  rain  b^an  to  fall  in  torrents,  and  we 
;re  driven  below  again.  The  wet  deck  was  crowded, 
re  and  aft,  with  poor  deck-passengers,  who  remained 
.t  all  night  exposed  to  the  pitiless,  pelting  storm, 
bere  were  two  individuals  up  there  who  were  far  less 
sy  in  their  minds  than  the  snoring  dervish  below. 
Hadji  Cost),  the  other  night,  carried  his  raki  to 
cess  in  a  public  tippiing-sfaop  in  his  native  town  of 
oudania ;  and  being  exceedingly  drunk,  and  provoked 
'  some  Christians,  he  swore  that  he  would  turn  Turk 


■^7" 


Chap.  XVm.  HADJI  COSTt.  131 

— nay,  that  he  was  already  a  Mussulman.    Next  morn- 
ing the  poor  Hadji  forgot  all  ahout  this  freak :  not  so 
the  Turks  and  their  MoUah ;  they  waited  upon  him 
''just  to  insinuate"  that  he  had  made  public  profession 
of  Islam ;  that  he  must  go  through  with  that  business 
and  complete  the  ceremonies;   and  that  a  Turk  he 
must  be  all  the  rest  of  his  life.     Hadji  Gosti  demurred, 
said  that  he  was  very  drunk  last  night,  and  in  a  fit  of 
anger  had  said  he  knew  not  what ;  swore  that  he  was  a 
baptized  Christian,  as  all  men  in  Moudania  well  knew ; 
that  he  was  a  recognisediladji,  or  pilgrim  to  Jerusalem, 
and  that  he  would  remain  a  Christian.     There  were 
witnesses  to  prove  that  he  had  quarrelled  in  his  cups 
with  some  other  Greeks,  and  that  anger  and  inebriety 
had  been  the  causes  of  his  very  indiscreet  and  improper 
exclamations  in  the  shop  of  raki.    All  this  availed  not ; 
the  Turks  fell  upon  the  Hadji,  beat  him,  bound  him, 
and,  with  the  order  of  the  Agha  and  MoUah,  carried 
him  away  prisoner  to  Brusa.     Our  friend  Mustapha 
Nouree  Pasha,  instead  of  dismissing  the  prisoner,  who 
had  been  sufficiently  punished  already,  put  handcufis 
on  the  poor  Hadji,  bound  his  arms  behind  him  with 
ropes,  and  sent  him  off  for  Constantinople,  under  the 
care  of  one  of  his  or  Khodja-Arab's  tufekjees.     Hadji 
Costi  had  been   cruelly  ill-treated  on  his  way  from 
Brusa  to  Ghemlik,  and  he  was  now  on  the  deck  in  sad 
plight,  with  the  tufekjee  and  his  pistols  and  yataghan  on 
one  side  of  him,  and  his  poor»  despairing  old  mother 
and  her  affections  on  the  other.     She  had  been  kissing 
our  hands  and  our  feet,  and  imploring  me  to  intercede 
for  her  son.     Both  of  them  solemnly  protested  that  the 
amount  of  the  Hadji's  offence  was  as  above  stated,  and 

K   2 


132  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIH. 

no  more ;  nor  did  the  tufekjee  pretend  to  deny  that 
the  young  man's  trouble  proceeded  from  a  mere  extra- 
yagance  of  drink.  The  mother  had  once  been  para- 
mana  or  nurse  in  the  family  of  the  French  consul  at 

Brusa,  and  Monsieur  C was  sending  (by  this  same 

steamboat)  a  report  of  the  whole  matter  to  his  ambas- 
sador at  Constantinople,  as  also  letters  to  his  brothers 
in  that  city,  requesting  their  interference  in  favour  of 
the  imprudent  Greek.  Thus  much  we  learned  while 
tchelebee  John  was  yet  with  us.  The  Turk,  who  was 
captain  of  the  steamer,  aqd  wh«,  though  a  great  coward, 
did  not  appear  to  be  a  bad  fellow,  understood  our  appeals, 
and  as  we  were  getting  out  of  the  gulf  insisted  that  the 
tufekjee  should  remove  the  handcuffs  from  the  prisoner, 
who  had  no  longer  any  chance  of  escaping. 

We  never  ventured  into  a  steamboat  managed  by 
Turks  without  being  very  thankfiil  when  the  voyage 
was  over.  I  can  scarcely  tell  now  how  this  crowded, 
dirty,  greasy,  oil-besprinkled  boat  escaped  being  set  on 
fire,  for,  below  deck  and  above,  fore  and  aft,  sailors, 
engineers,  passengers,  were  all  smoking  pipes  and  knock- 
ing the  atesh  hither  and  thither  without  the  least  atten- 
tion to  the  ignited  charcoal. 

At  about  7  A.M.  on  the  23rd  of  December,  in  foggy, 
drizzling,  cold,  wretched  weather,  we  came  to  anchor  in 
the  Golden  Horn,  at  the  New  Bridge.  I  had  been  dis- 
gusted at  the  perfect  indifference  which  the  Armenian 
Christians  on  board  had  shown  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
Greek  and  his  poor  old  mother.  As  the  passengers 
began  to  land,  the  tufekjee  again  handcuffed  his  prisoner. 
The  mother  came  crying  to  me.  I  wanted  a  drogoman 
to  speak  with  the  tufekjee ;  and  as  he  was  standing  close 


Chap.  XVin.  SECTARIAN  HATREDS.  133 

to  me,  I  politely  asked  the  Armenian  who  had  so  wil- 
lingly interpreted  for  the  colonel,  to  render  me  and  the 
poor  Greek  this  little  service.  He  flatly  refused,  say- 
ing that  it  was  no  business  of  his,  that  he  had  nothing 
to  do  with  Greeks,  that  he  was  a  Bayah  subject,  and 
that  the  Mussulmans  might  take  offence.  I  believe  that 
there  was  not  an  Armenian  on  board  but  would  have 
seen  the  Hadji  bastinadoed,  there  on  the  deck,  with 
calm  indifference,  if  not  with  real  pleasure.  Such  is  the 
love  which  these  Christians  bear  towards  one  another  I 
So  likely  are  they  to  afnglgamate  1 

A  very  dirty  dark  man,  wearing  a  sort  of  Frank 
dress,  and  a  thoroughly  roguish  countenance,  came  up 
and  offered  his  services  for  the  landing  and  passing  of 
our  baggage.  He  spoke  pretty  good  Italian,  and  was 
not  at  all  afraid  of  acting  as  my  drogoman.  By  his 
means  I  comforted  the  distressed  mother,  and  soothed 
(that  is,  backshished)  the  tufekjee,  who  was  to  carry  the 
Hadji  to  the  Seraskier's  prison  in  Constantinople.  I  told 
the  poor  woman  to  go  at  once  to  the  counting-house  of 

the  Messieurs  C in  Galata,  and  to  lose  no  time  in 

showing  herself  at  the  French  embassy ;  and  I  gave  her 
a  little  money,  being  quite  sure  that  they  would  need 
piastres  before  they  got  out  of  this  scrape,  even  if  the 
business  should  take  the  most  favourable  turn.  At  the 
very  first  opportunity  I  mentioned  the  matter  to  Lgrd 
Cowley,  who  found,  upon  inquiry,  that  the  French  lega^ 
tion  had  succeeded  in  procuring  the  liberation  of  the 
Greek. 

The  Frank  whose  services  we  had  retained,  cleared 
our  portmanteaux  and  bags  by  backahishing  two  old 
Turks  at  the  head  of  the  bridge.     Having  deposited 


134  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XVIH. 

our  effects  in  good  old  Stampa's  shop  in  Galata  (I  have 
said  before  that  there  was  no  doing  anything  without 

Stampa),  we  knocked  up  our  friend  J.  R j  who 

lived  in  this  part  of  the  Christian  suburbs.  Here  we 
learned  that  the  bad  weather  of  which  we  were  com- 
plaining— having  been  soaked  to  the  skin  on  our  way 
from  the  bridge — had  been  prevailing  at  Constantinople 
for  many  weeks,  and  that  they  had  scarcely  had  three 
fine  days  in  succession  since  we  took  our  departure  for 
Asia  Minor  on  the  7th  of  September.  The  season  had 
been  unusually  wet  and  cold.  While  we  had  been  en- 
joying such  uninterrupted  fine  weather,  they  had  been 
shivering  here.  September,  which  is  usually  a  fine 
month  at  Stamboul,  had  this  time  been  a  month  of 
rains,  mists,  and  fogs.  In  a  straight  line,  the  Brusa 
plain  is  scarcely  more  than  sixty-five  miles  ofl^  and  our 
difference  in  latitude  and  longitude  had  never  been  con- 
siderable; but  we  had  been  sheltered  by  mountains 
fit>m  the  clouds  and  winds  of  the  Black  Sea,  which  rush 
through  the  narrow  straits  of  the  Bosphorus  as  through 
a  fimnel,  and  sweep  across  the  neighbouring  low-lying 
promontory  of  Thrace  with  unmitigated  fury.  I  still 
shudder  at  the  recollection  of  the  north-easters  we  en- 
dured, and  had  to  endure,  with  very  little  intermission, 
until  the  close  of  April  I  The  cholera  was  now  vert/ 
prevalent,  and  had  been  so  ever  since  the  middle  of 
September.  Doctors  did  not  agree  whether  it  was  the 
real  Asiatic  cholera  or  not;  but  if  it  was  a  pseudo- 
cholera,  it  killedj  and  that  quickly.  More  than  six  hours 
did  not  often  intervene  between  the  first  seizure  and 
cramp  and  death.  It  had  been  most  destructive  in  the 
lowest  quarters  lying  along  the  Fort,  and  amongst  the 


w«^._#« 


Chap.  XVm.  CHOLERA— PERA.  135 

poorest  of  the  Turks,  and  the  very  poor  Greeks  and 
Armenians,  whose  ordinary  food  is  scanty,  and  of  very 
bad  quality.  The  disease  had  gained  great  strength 
since  the  commencement  of  the  long,  long  Christmas  fast, 
when  the  Greeks  and  Armenians  eat  neither  fish  nor 
flesh,  but  live  upon  bad  vegetable  messes,  and  trash  of 
the  very  worst  kind,  keeping  up  the  flickering  flame  of 
life  by  drinking  a  more  than  common  quantity  of  ardent 
spirits.  Of  the  well-living  Franks,  not  a  man,  woman, 
or  child  had  as  yet  died  of  the  complaint 

We  climbed  up  to  Pera  through  rain  and  sleet,  slush 
atid  indescribable  filth,  and  re-occupied  our  old  quarters 
near  the  dancing  dervishes,  which  were  as  cold  and  damp 
as  they  were  hot  and  sufibcating  in  summer  time.  Ex- 
cept in  the  semi-subterranean  kitchen,  there  was  not  a 
fireplace  in  the  whole  house.  The  deficiency  was  badly 
supplied  by  iron-plate  Dutch  stoves,  and  an  occasional 
pan  of  charcoal,  neither  of  which  ever  failed  to  give  me 
the  most  distressing  headaches,  with  pains  in  the  eyes. 

In  quitting  Asia  we  had  taken  leave  of  fine  weather, 
and  of  all  approach  to  comfort. 


--'-  -^f-^^?*'*^.-.".,.^  ^mmi0mmmmmammmitmtm>^^mmKi^mm^mm  »■  «■ 


136  TUKKBT  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CoiiBtantinople  —  Turkish  Ministers  and  Reformers  —  Difficulty  in  seeing 
them  —  Backshish  —  Dishonesty  of  the  Turks  in  the  Capital  —  Vast 
numher  of  Servants  kept  hy  Pashas  —  Vice  and  Crime  —  Visit  to  Ali 
Pasha,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  —  Mustapha-Nouree  Pasha  — 
Reshid  Pasha,  the  Qrand  Vizier  —  Lack  of  Hospitality  —  Turkish 
Diplomatic  Dinners  —  In-door  Life  of  the  great  Turks  —  Buffoons  and 
Dervishes  —  Sarim  Pasha,  Finance  Minister  —  The  House  of  a  Turkish 
Effendi  —  Aversion  to  the  Society  of  Europeans  —  Emin  Pasha,  and  a 
Comhat  with  Dogs  —  Prostrations  of  an  Armenian  Seraff  —  Turkish 
Correspondence  —  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha,  Grand  Master  of  the  ArtiDeiy 
— ^A  Bed  Indian  wanted  —  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  and  Anecdote  of  him 

—  Marriages  of  Sultanas  settled  hy  the  Armenians  —  Political  Economy 

—  Indolence  of  Men  in  Office  —  A  Plan  for  improving  Agriculture  and 
reducing  the  Bate  of  Interest  —  The  System  of  the  Seraffs :  its  fatal 
consequences  —  Sultan  Mahmoud's  Execution  of  four  of  the  Dooz-Oglous 
m  one  morning. 

I  NOW  saw  some  of  the  reforming  ministers  and  a  good 
many  of  the  grecU  men  who  had  been  brought  into  office 
by  Beshid  Pasha,  the  present  head  of  the  reform  school. 
Although  there  was  no  Bamazan  or  Bairain  to  interfere, 
access  to  these  magnates  was  not  so  very  easy,  for  they 
nearly  all  lived  across  the  water  in  Constantinople 
Proper,  and  the  only  time  you  could  see  them  in  their 
houses  was  between  the  hours  of  eight .  and  ten  in  the 
morning.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to  rise  very  early 
and  turn  out  in  the  cold,  damp,  raw  air,  and  wade 
through  the  mud  in  a  pair  of  mud-boots,  or  ride  a 
miserable  hack-horse  at  the  risk  of  breaking  your  legs 
The  distances  were  often  very  considerable ;  the  road 
was  always  detestable  and  dangerously  slippery.     One 


Chap.  XIX.  TURKISH  MINISTERS.  137 

morning  the  snow  lay  so  deep  behind  the  Seraskier's 
Tower  that  it  came  over  my  knees.  Then  every  great 
man  had  his  r^ular  and  crowded  levee ;  and  one  was 
sometimes  kept  to  wait  and  shiver,  among  a  strange 
motley  crowd,  in  a  cold  saloon  or  ante-chamber,  '[t'hat 
I  was  never  kept  waiting  long  was,  I  believe,  princi* 
pally  because  the  hungry  attendants,  who  live  upon  such 
donations,  always  expected  good  backshish  from  English- 
men, and  were  seldom  disappointed.  Nor  were  these 
visits  a  light  tax  upon  the  purse.  Wherever  I  went  a 
dozen  or  so  of  servants  followed  me  to  the  head  of  the 
stairs  or  to  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  enunciating  the  dissyl- 
lables "  hackshishr  From  a  very  great  man's  house  I 
could  seldom  get  free  under  50  piastres.  Every  time 
Lord  Cowley  went  to  visit  Reshid  Pasha,  the  Grand 
Vizier,  it  cost  him  500  piastres.  His  Lordship  was 
only  Minister  Plenipotentiary.  From  Sir  Stratford 
Canning,  who  had  the  full  rank  of  Ambassador,  a  higher 
backshish  was  expected.*  One  payment  did  not  make 
you  free  of  the  house ;  at  least  I  used  to  be  followed  to 

*  At  the  Conrban  Bairam,  when  the  heads  of  the  Hajrah  Christian 
dmrches  paid  their  annual  Tisits  of  ceremony  and  congratulation  to  the 
chiefa  of  the  Turkish  government,  the  Armenian  Patriarch,  on  quitting  the 
house  of  little  Ali  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  gave  1000  piastres  as 
hackshish ;  the  Minister's  major-domo  put  on  a  sulky  countenance,  and 
told  him  that  this  was  too  little ;  and  the  Patriarch  thought  himself 
obliged  to  increase  the  stmi,  and  did  increase  it  on  the  staircase.  This 
fact  was  communicated  to  me  hy  an  Englishman,  who  was  an  eye  and  ear 
witness. 

As  a  still  greater  sum  would  he  expected  at  the  Grand  Vizier *s,  and  as 
the  Patriarch  was  bound  to  visit  many  other  pashas,  this  annual  tax  must 
have  been  a  very  heavy  one.  The  chief  of  the  Catholic  Armenian  church, 
the  Greek  Patriarch,  and  the  head  Rabbi  of  the  Jews  were  equally  bound 
to  pay  these  annual  visits.  The  *  Journal  de  Constantinople '  inserted 
accounts  of  the  visits  as  striking  proofs  of  the  cordiality  which  existed 
between  Mussulmans,  Christians,  and  Israelites. 


138  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTDTT.  Chap.  XIX. 

the  stairs  at  a  second  and  even  at  a  third  visit;  and 
whenever  I  fidled  to  pay  the  tax  I  found  sulky  looks  at 
my  return,  and  a  very  general  disinclination  to  announce 
my  arrival  to  the  great  man.  Nor  did  the  payments 
end  up  stairs  or  on  the  stairs :  down  helow,  by  the 
gateway,  there  was  always  some  old  Turk  who  took 
charge  of  the  mud-boots  which  are  kicked  off  before  you 
ascend,  and  this  functionary  always  looks  for  a  contri- 
bution ;  and  when  you  have  done  with  him  there  is  very 
generally  a  concierge,  or  gate-porter,  to  hold  out  his 
palm.  It  was  bad  economy  to  use  stint  widi  this  part 
of  the  household.  Dr.  Lawrence  Smith,  an  American 
geologist  in  the  service  of  the  Porte,  growing  weary  of 
these  taxes,  levied  upon  him  when  he  was  going  about 
the  business  of  the  Government,  drew  tight  the  strings 
of  his  purse — ^and  lost  three  pair  of  mud-boots  in  the 
cotirse  of  as  many  weeks.  Now,  a  proper  pair  of  these 
boots — ^a  strong,  water-proof,  snow-proof  pair,  with 
which  you  could  fearlessly  stride  through  muck  and 
mire — cost  200  piastres.  Our  geological  friend  found  it 
cheaper  to  give  five  piastres  to  these  functionaries.  His 
last  and  best  pair  was  lost,  or  rather  stolen,  at  the  konack 
of  the  Seraskier  Pasha,  or  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army,  where  he  had  left  them  under  the  eyes  of  a 
couple  of  sentinels,  who  were  at  their  post  all  the  time 
he  was  up  stairs,  and  who  very  much  enjoyed  tiie  spec- 
tacle of  his  having  to  walk  off  through  the  mud  and  slush 
in  a  pair  of  tihin  under-boots.  These  thefts — of  which 
we  heard  many  other  instances — ^were  undeniably  per- 
petrated by  Turks,  by  Constantinopolitan  Osmanlees, 
who  were  showing  their  advances  in  European  civili- 
zation by  picking  and  stealing.    Many  persons  engaged 


Chap.  XDL  BACKSHISH.  139 

in  business  and  keeping  houses  of  their  own  assured  us 
that-  they  could  no  longer  put  that  trust  in  Turkish 
honesty  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  do  ten  or 

twelve  years  ago.    My  old  friend  Mr.  B attributed 

all  this  decay  of  morality  to  the  changes  which  had  been 
forced  upon  the  Mussulman  people,  and  which  had 
upset  or  coniused  all  their  old  notions.  ^^  You  would 
have  them  Frankified,  and  now  they  steal  like  Franks. 
You  would  alter  their  old  religious  precepts,  now  they 
are  fast  getting  into  no  religion.''  I  believe  that  the 
universal  spread  of  poverty  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
this  new  habit  of  pilfering.  But  to  return  from  stealing 
to  bachshishing — it  is  idle  for  tlie  Turkish  dignitaries 
or  their  friends  to  pretend  that  they  are  ignorant  of  the 
evil  practice,  for  they  cannot  but  know  that  men  must 
eat  and  drink  to  live,  and  that  they  pay  their  hosts  of 
servants  hardly  any  wages.  More  :  in  the  greatest 
houses,  where  the  highest  backshishes  are  paid,  to  avoid 
the  violent  quarrels  which  were  constantly  occurring 
about  the  division  of  the  spoils,  the  Pashas  had  ordered 
and  ordained  that  all  the  money  received  should  be  put 
into  one  box,  and  divided  in  fair  proportions  at  the  end 
of  every  month  by  the  head  servant  of  all,  or  steward  of 
the  household.  I  know  these  facts  for  a  certainty ;  I 
know  them  as  well  as  I  can  be  said  to  know  anything 
not  tested  by  the  evidence  of  my  own  senses ;  I  had  my 
information  from  parties  immediaiely  concerned  in  the 
monthly  distribution — parties  from  whom  I  learned 
many  other  particulars  (known  to  very  few  foreigners) 
of  the  interieur  of  these  households.  The  practice  ob- 
tained and  was  regularly  established  at  the  Grand 
Vizier's,  and  at  the  Beis  Effendi's,  the  first  of  these 


«nMM>wM4*«a[i«vaHlMBiw«fMpi^^^^«^^v^^^M^pH«WMHBnwip<^ 


140  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

Magnates  having,  as  I  have  hefore  stated,  more  than 
300  idle  servants  and  retainers,  and  the  second  having 
ahout  half  that  number,  and  both  being  men  who  had 
no  private  fortune,  and  who  had  made  their  way  from 
low  stations.  And  these  men  had  seen  the  simple  do- 
mestic arrangements  of  Prime  Ministers  and  Secretaries 
of  State  in  England  and  France,  two  of  the  greatest  and 
richest  countries  of  Europe ;  and  all  these  idle,  unpro- 
ductive, vicious  retainers  were  kept  on  foot  in  the  capital 
— ^not  merely  in  the  two  houses  I  have  named,  but  in 
fifty  other  houses — when  the  provinces  were  going  to 
perdition  through  default  of  inhabitants  and  agricul- 
turists !  Sultan  Mahmoud  once  employed  the  whip  to 
drive  the  faithful  to  the  mosque ;  a  scourge  ought  to  be 
used  to  drive  these  useless  vagabonds  into  the  country 
or  unto  some  profitable  occupation.  The  morality 
which  prevailed  among  them  was  of  a  sort  not  to  be 
described  by  any  English  pen.  What  else  could  be  ex- 
pected from  such  a  system,  or  from  the  heaping  together 
of  such  crowds  of  men,  for  the  most  part  young,  and  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  day  having  no  earthly  business 
to  do  ?  I  heard  stories — well  authenticated  accounts — 
which  I  believe  are  not  to  be  paralleled  on  earth,  unless 
it  be  in  Persia.  Some  things  I  saw  with  my  own  eyes. 
I  could  never  go  through  the  halls  and  ante-rooms  of 
one  of  these  little  men  great  in  office  without  a  loathing 
and  sickening  at  the  stomach.  It  came  to  this — I  could 
not  take  my  son  with  me — and  I  was  more  than  once 
advised  not  to  do  so.  I  asseverate  all  this  with  the 
solemnity  I  would  attach  to  an  oath  upon  the  gospel.  I 
was  not  prepared  for  this  awful  state  of  things — it  broke 
upon  me  by  degrees.     My  former  intercourse  with  the 


Chap.  XIX.  VISIT  TO  ALI  PASHA.  141 

Turks  (in  1827-8)  had  indeed  convinced  me  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  most  degrading  of  vices,  but  I  had  then 
no  notion  of  the  extent  of  the  turpitude;  I  had  now 
been  led  to  believe  that  there  was  an  improvement  on 
the  past,  and  I  had  grasped  at  the  idea  that  the  rights 
of  nature  were  vindicated.  I  take  the  existent  and  (as 
I  believe)  augmented  abomination  against  all  the  treaties 
of  alliance  and  defence,  against  all  the  political  combi- 
nations of  Western  Europe,  against  all  the  schemes  that 
ever  were,  or  ever  will  be,  entertained  for  the  preserva- 
tion and  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  I  boldly 
say  that  that  Empire  cannot  be  maintained — ^that  the 
opprobrium  of  man  and  the  curse  of  God  will  sink  it 
into  a  pit  as  deep  as  the  Dead  Sea. 

My  first  visit,  on  the  26th  of  December,  1847,  was 
to  the  second  person  in  the  Cabinet  I  am  not  aware 
that  I  need  conceal  the  name : — it  was  to  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  who  had  been  a  short  time  previ- 
ously so  well  known  in  London  as  Ali  Effendi  and  the 
Sultan's  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  and  who,  for  writing 
some  of  the  most  wearisome  state  papers  that  ever  were 
penned  about  the  Greek  Mussurus  quarrel,  was  about 
to  be  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  a  Pasha.  He  had 
begun  life  in  poverty  and  obscurity ;  he  had  been  taken 
into  the  service  of  the  Porte,  as  a  little  clerk,  and  had 
had  greatness  thrust  upon  him  by  Keshid  Pasha,  whose 
right-hand  man  he  was.  I  had  met  him  in  London ;  I 
was  the  friend  of  some  who  had  been  his  closest  friends, 
and  I  was  lie  bearer  to  him  of  a  very  particular  letter 
of  introduction  from  Prince  Callimaki,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded him  at  the  court  of  St.  James's.  Since  the  days 
of  the  witty  Neapolitan  Abbe  Galiani,  who  called  him- 


142      •  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Ghap.  XIX. 

self  the  echantiUon  of  a  diplomatist^  there  has  never 
been  so  tiny  a  man  employed  in  diplomacy  as  this 
Beis  Effendi :  he  was  a  pigmy  in  height,  and  marvel- 
lously thin-^be  was  what  the  Italians  call  a  comrrui 
(uTMZ  virgvla) ;  there  was  not  substance  enough  in  him 
to  beat  out  into  a  semicolon.  He  spoke  French  with 
ease  and  even  with  accuracy,  so  that  our  tSte-h-tSte  was 
not  disturbed  by  the  necessity  of  employing  the  dis- 
tressing machinery  of  a  drogoman.  He  understood 
every  word  I  said  to  him  as  well  as  I  understood  all 
that  came  from  his  lips ;  there  was  no  mistake  or  possi- 
I  bility  of  mistaking.     I  pin  him  to  his  own  words.     He 

received  me  very  courteously  in  a  wretchedly  cold  and 
miserable  room,  he  wearing  a  warm  furred  mantle,  and 
I  having  cast  off  my  top-coat  in  the  ante-room ;  but  he 
was  far  more  pompous  than  I  could  by  any  possibility 
have  anticipated — ^the  coming  tails  of  a  Fasha  had 
turned  his  head,  and  although  his  big  house  was  but  an 
awkward,  dirty  barrack,  the  state  and  circumstance  by 
which  he  was  surrounded  had  visibly  affected  him.  He 
was  no  more  like  the  poor,  humble  katib  or  scribe  of 
the  Forte,  or  like  what  I  had  seen  and  heard  of  him  in 
England,  than  Sancho  Fanza,  in  his  government  of  Ba- 
rataria,  was  like  Sancho  when  in  his  native  viUage  or 
following  Don  Quixote  on  his  own  dapple  donkey. 
Tempora  mutantwr,  et  nos  / . .  .  .  He  knew  that  I  was  a 
literary  man,  that  I  had  written  a  work  upon  Turkey 
which  had  made  some  noise  at  the  time ;  and  he  expressed 
a  hope  that  I  could  now  write  another  and  a  much  more 
favowrable  one,  seemg  that  civilization  had  made  such 
progress  in  the  Sultan's  dominions  since  I  was  last  here. 
I  told  him,  with  all  suavity,  that  I  should  be  too  happy 


Chap,  XIX.      CONVERSATION  WITH  AW  PASHA.  143 

to  report  any  real  p-ogress,  that  I  had  come  from  Eng- 
land with  the  hope  of  being  able  to  do  so,  and  that  I 
had  the  greatest  respect  for  Sir  Stratford  Canning^  who 
had  proved  himself  so  good  a  friend  to  Turkey.  He 
had  heard  that  I  had  been  residing  and  travelling  more 
than  three  months  in  the  great  Pashalik  of  Brusa,  and 
he  wanted  to  know  what  I  thought  of  the  state  of  that 
country.  "  Avec  moi  vous  pouvez  parler,  Monsiewr^  sans 
gene — sans  management!*  I  was '  certainly  not  geni; 
bat  I  told  him  tifie  truth  with  as  much  politeness  as  was 
compatible  with  frankness  and  honesty.  I  was  not  yet 
quite  sure  that  the  trutli  would  not  be  acceptable  to 
him.  If  it  proved  otherwise,  I  could  have  nothing 
'  more  to  do  with  him.  To  an  honest  Minister  I  might 
suggest  that  which  would  be  of  use  to  the  country,  par- 
ticularly as  such  great  men  had  great  difficulty  in  getting 
at  the  truth.  I  felt  that  as  an  Englishman,  as  a  member 
(however,  obscure)  of  a  nation  which  had  made  great 
sacrifices  to  support  this  tottering  Empire,  and  which 
had  contracted  a  treaty  and  obligations  that  might  call 
for  still  greater  sacrifices,  and  even  involve  her  in  a  war, 
I  had  a  good  right  to  deliver  my  sentiments  freely. 
This  Minister  had  asked  me  for  them.  I  was  not 
diplomatizing,  but  if  I  had  been  so  engaged  I  should 
certainly  Mave  acted  upon  the  principle  that  "truth- 
telling  is  the  very  acm6  of  diplomacy.*'  *  My  mind, 
too,  was  full  of  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  I  had  witnessed 
over  in  Asia,  and  I  had  not  quite  dismissed  the  thought 

♦  "  Well,  Dunsford,  you  are  very  oandid,  and  would  make  a  complete 
diplomatist :  truth-telling  Iwing  now  pronounced  (rather  late  in  the  day) 
the  very  acm£  of  diplomacy." — ^Frzekds  in  Ck)i;NCiL :  A  Series  of  Headings 
sad  Discourse  thereon*    London,  1847. 


' 


144  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

diat  an  honest  statement  might  lead  to  some  measure  of 
redress,  more  especially  as  the  greater  part  of  these 
wrongs  might  be  set  right  without  pecuniary  or  other 
injury  to  the  ruling  powers.  Wherever  I  could  bestow 
praise,  I  gave  it  warmly ;  but  I  put  no  softening  varnish 
upon  the  pictures  of  woe  and  horror.  I  told  him  of 
the  miserable  state  of  the  peasantry,  of  the  iniquitous 
proceedings  of  the  Farmers  of  the  Revenue,  of  the 
effects  produced  by  the  enormous  rate  of  interest;  of 
the  torturing  of  the  poor  Greek  at  Billijik,  and  of  the 
outrages  offered  to  the  industrious  Christians  of  that 
town;  I  related  the  whole  of  poor  Yorvacki's  story, 
sparing  neither  Mustapha  Nouree  Fasha  nor  Khodjk- 
Arab.  As  he  was  to  see  the  Vizier  this  morning  at 
the  Forte,  I  put  Yorvacki's  petition  in  his  hands.  He 
listened  with  an  appearance  of  attention,  and  made 
some  remarks  which  induced  me  to  believe  that  he  was 
sincere  and  in  earnest.  He  rather  frequently  exclaimed, 
"  That  is  bad !"  "  that  is  very  unjust ! "  "  that  is  con- 
trary to  the  Tanzimaut  and  our  existing  laws !"  "  that 
must  be  remedied !"  He  said  he  thanked  me  for  my 
information,  and  felt  assured  that  I  gave  it  as  a  friend 
to  the  government.  He  did  not  show  any  vulgar  ill- 
humoiir,  like  the  Fasha  of  Brusa ;  if  he  felt  any,  he  for 
the  time  concealed  it  perfectly.  His  remarks  proved 
that  he  was  no  administrator.  He  said  that,  as  to  the 
Farmer-General  system,  it  brought  a  higher  and  steadier 
revenue  to  the  Forte  than  the  old  system  had  done. 
As  to  the  distresses  of  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  he  said 
that  in  some  parts  of  the  Empire  they  were  rather  over- 
taxed ;  but  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  government 
commission  to  revise  taxation,  upon  the  principle  that 


r-     1 1  Uti 


.".       .         _.    MP^^— »-    I  ■         "^      J        ■.    ■ 


Chap.  XIX.      CONYERSATION  WITH  ALI  PASHA,  1*5 

the  poorer  districts  should  pay  less  and  the  richer  more 
than  they  were  now  doing.  As  for  the  rate  of  interest^ 
he  thought  that  at  some  time  or  other  government 
would  establish  a  National  Bank,  with  branches  in  the 
different  pashaliks;  but  this  was  a  matter  to  be  ap* 
proached  with  great  caution,  as,  according  to  the  Koran> 
Mussulmans  could  not  take  any  interest  on  money  lent. 
He  felt  that  the  resources  of  Turkey  lay  in  her  agri- 
culture; he  knew  that  this  was  in  a  most  backward 
state,  but  the  government  had  created  a  Board  of  Agri- 
culture, and  was  paying  handsome  salaries  to  its  mem- 
bers, and  although  these  gentlemen  had  not  yet  done 
anything,  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  they  soon  would  do 
something.  He  was  quite  sensible  of  the  value  of  roads 
and  railways ;  he  had  seen  what  wonders  were  done  in 
that  way  in  England ;  he  was  fully  aware  that  nothing 
could  be  done  for  the  inland  countries  without  roads ; 
and  he  thought  it  a  great  pity  that  the  Sultan  had  spent 
so  many  millions  of  piastres  in  trying  to  set  up  manu- 
factures, instead  of  employing  that  money  in  making 
roads,  and  in  promoting  agricultural  improvements; 
but  then  the  Sultan  was  very  fond  of  seeing  things 
manufactured  in  his  own  dominions,  and  the  Armenian 
Dadians,  who  had  great  influence  with  the  sovereign, 
were  all  for  manufactures,  and  were  promising  to  be 
very  soon  able  to  make  everything  at  home  that  Turkey 
wanted.  He  excused  the  Fasha  of  Brusa's  heart  at  the 
expense  of  his  head :  he  said  that  he  was  a  man  of  very 
limited  intellect,  and  far  in  the  rear  of  his  epoch — trh 
homdy  et  excessivement  arriSrS — but  then  he  was  strongly 
supported  at  Constantinople;  and,  though  he  had  no 
genius,  he  had  so  much  talent  for  intrigue,  that  it  was 

VOL.  n.  L 


-^sr 


-1 


146  TUBKET  AND  ITS  DESTmY.  Chap.  3IX. 

much  better  for  the  present  goyemment  that  he  should 
be  at  Brusa  than  that  he  should  be  near  the  Court !  I 
very  naturally  concluded  from  this  that  there  was  but 
slight  chance  of  getting  redress  for  Yorvacki  or  any  one 
else,  and  not  the  slightest  of  Mustapha  Nouree  being 
removed  from  the  Pashalik  that  he  was  ruining.^  At 
my  leave-taking  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Afiairs  showed 
no  lack  of  courtesy,  inviting  me  to  return  to  his  house, 
telling  me  that  he  would  introduce  me  to  the  Vizier 
whenever  I  chose.  I  never  saw  the  little  man's  face 
again :  he  had  seen  quite  enough  of  me !  The  next 
time  I  called  he  was  engaged — ^was  very  busy — ^was 
just  going  to  the  Forte;  and  as  I  had  the  means  of 
knowing  to  a  certainty  that  all  this  was  untrue,  I  never 
returned.  I  did  not  need  his  introduction  to  Reshid 
Pasha;  I  might  have  been  introduced  through  our 
Embassy,  but  even  that  was  not  necessary,  for  the 
Vizier's  house  was  always  open  (at  the  usual  early  and 
uncomfortable  hours)  to  Frank  travellers,  for  whose 
compliments  and  praises  Beshid  had  a  voracious  appe* 
tite.     But  seeing  that  notliing  at  all  came  of  Yorvacki's 


*  Mnstaplia  Nooree  was,  however,  recalldd  some  sixteen  montiis  after 
ibis  convei-sation. 

In  a  letter  dated  Brusa,  14tli  May,  1849,  one  of  my  friends  says — "  I 
think  yon  will  be  glad  to  hear  tiiat  our  Pasha  has  at  last  been  replaced. 
He  was  recalled  about  a  week  ago,  and  is  replaced  by  Riza  Pasha,  the  rival 
of  Heshid,  and  the  once  noted  Seraskier  I  Mustapha  Nouree  goes  to  Con- 
stantinople, bat  he  will  there  retain  his  enormous  pay  of  75,000  piastres 
per  month  I  This  is  like  hush-money :  they  are  afraid  of  him  over  at  the 
Porte.  Every  one. is  making  a  holiday  now,  and  rejoicing  at  the  prospect 
of  being  so  soon  quit  of  this  Pasha.  I  am  glad  we  get  rid  of  him,  as  the 
country  was  suffering  so  cruelly  by  his  extortians.  Whoever  comes  cannot 
govern  worse ;  but  I  have  no  great  opinion  of  Biza  Pasha,  Riza  and  his 
people  will  no  doubt  proceed  to  eat  up  the  little  that  Mustapha  Nouree  has 
left  us." 


■-»'  m  ju**v 


Chap.  XIX.       TURKISH  DIPLOMATIO  DINNERS.  147 

petition,  hearing  every  day  some  fresh  account  of  the 
corrupt  and  wretched  manner  in  which  the  affairs  of 
government  were  managed,  and  finally  getting  evidence 
(which  I  will  relate  hereafter)  in  the  highest  degree  un- 
favourable to  the  Vizier^s  private  character,  I  kept  away 
fVom  his  Konack.  I  never  saw  him  but  once,  when  he 
was  returning  through  the  filthy  streets  of  Tophana  firom 
a  conference  with  the  Sultan  at  Dolma-Baghche.  He 
appeared  to  be  a  very  different  man  firom  what  he  was 
when  in  London ;  he  had  grown  obese,  and  his  com- 
plexion had  become  muddy.  He  looked  gloomy,  un- 
easy, sulky ;  but  this  may  have  proceeded  firom  the  fact 
that  he  was  tiien  on  the  point  of  being  thrust  from  place 
and  power. 

Wherever  I  expected  most  attention,  I  met  with  the 
least;  and  wherever  a  Turk  had  been  the  object  of 
unusual  hospitality  and  kindness  on  the  banks  of  the 
Thames^  he  was  pretty  sure  not  to  make  the  least  re* 
turn  to  an  Englishman  on  the  banks  of  the  Bosphorus. 
I  was  forewarned  by  old  English  residents  that  this 
would  be  the  case,  and  so  I  certainly  found  it,  without 
one  exception  worth  mentioning.  If  these  Turks  had 
risen  rapidly  in  the  world,  they  did  not  like  to  be  re- 
minded of  their  former  humble  stations ;  and  if  their 
idsmet  had  not  been  favourable,  they  did  not  like  to 
exhibit  their  present  humiliation.  Those  who  treated 
me  with  the  most  politeness  and  gave  me  most  of  the 
information  I  wanted  were  Turks  I  had  never  seen 
before,  to  whom  I  brought  no  letters,  and  to  whom  I 
introduced  myself  as  an  English  traveller.  But  the 
exercise  of  hospitality — beyond  the  giving  of  a  cup  of 
coffee  with  the  pipes — seemed  to  be  utterly  unknown  to 

l2 


148  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

all  of  them  except  two  or  three.     Once  or  twice  in  the 
course  of  the  year  the  Grand  Vizier  and  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Afiairs  gave  a  grand  dinner,  and  drank 
champagne  and  toasts  with   their  Frank  guests;   but 
these  were  public,  diplomatic  dinners,  and  although  they 
might  show  to  what  a  degree  the  Ministers  of  the  Com- 
mander of  the  Faithful  were  emancipated  from  Mussul- 
man prejudices,   they  were   described  to   us  as  most 
awkward,  comfortless  affairs.      Keshid  Pasha  gave  a 
banquet  to  the  American  Minister,  Mr.  Carr,  and  Dr. 
Davis,  some   time  after  the  Doctor's  arrival   in  the 
country  to  take  charge  of  the  Sultan's  Model  Farm ; 
and  toasts  were  there  drunk  to  the  health  of  the  Doctor, 
the  success  of  the  enterprise,  and  the  prosperity  of  agri- 
culture, by  the  great  reforming  Minister,  who  allowed 
the  Doctor's  health  to  be  destroyed  by  anxieties  and 
disappointments  and  the  contrarieties  put  in  his  way  by 
a  gang  of  Armenian  plunderers.     And  in  the  month  of 
February  (1848),  when  Monsignore  Ferrieri  arrived  at 
Stamboul,  as  the  first  Nuncio  from  a  Pope  to  a  Sultan, 
Ali  Pasha,  the  Reis-Effendi,  gave  him  one  diplomatic 
dinner,  at  which  wine  was  drunk  in  profusion  and  a  great 
hollow  show  made  of  religious  toleration.     But  these 
men   never  had   (for  Christians   or   Franks)   private 
friendly  dinners,  or  anything  like  what  we  understand 
by  the  word  society.     On  their  return  from  the  Porte 
in  the  afternoon  they  shut  themselves  up  with  their 
creatures,  dependents,  and  flatterers;  with  them  they 
dined,  and  with  them  they  passed  their  evenings,  until 
it  was  time  to  withdraw  into  their  harems^  where  tiiey 
remained  until  levfee-hour  next  morning.     After  their 
levies  they  went  to  the  Porte,  and  from  the  Porte  they 


■Sg^l»*'?**^>MwS— gg^^^™— w^— ^pwpw'w  I   ■"^WMB— tfpiTaF^    —  -    ^ 


Chap.  XIX.  BUFFOONS  AND  DERVISHES.  149 

came  home  to  do  as  they  had  done  yesterday.  This 
was  their  habitual  life.  You  could  never  see  them  in 
their  houses  except  early  in  the  morning.  You  might 
indeed  see  them  at  the  Porte,  where  their  principal 
occupation  appeared  to  be  smoking.  I  believe  that 
neither  Reshid  nor  his  man  Ali  indulged  much  in  that 
sort  of  amusement,  but  other  great  Pashas  enlivened  the 
after-dinner  hours  by  calling  in  professional  buffoons,  and 
filthy  old  dervishes  who  could  tell  the  most  smutty 
stories*  In  the  detached  government  offices  it  was  not 
rare  for  some  of  the  Pashas  to  take  this  solace  in  the 
day-time,  and  in  what  are  considered  business-hours. 
The  Mint  and  the  Treasury,  which  are  both  situated 
witliin  the  second  gate  of  the  old  imperial  (and  now 
deserted)  palace,  the  Serraglio,  was  haunted  at  all  times 
of  the  day  and  nearly  every  day  of  the  week  by  an  old 
dwarf  of  a  dervish  of  the  peripatetic  order,  who  was  ex- 
cessively filthy  in  his  person  and  still  filthier  in  his 
conversation.     Both  were  so  insupportable  to  English 

senses,  that  our  firiend  J.  R ,  who  was  employed  in 

the  Mint,  used  to  bar  the  door  of  his  rooms  whenever 
he  saw  him  approaching.  Yet  this  concrete  of  filth  and 
obscenity  was  almost  constantly  to  be  seen  in  the  Trea- 
sury seated  on  the  same  divan  with  Sarim  Pasha,  the 
Minister  of  Finances,  who  had  been  for  a  considerable 
time  the  Sultan's  Minister  Plenipotentiary  in  London : 
or  if  the  dervish  dwarf  was  not  with  the  Minister  of 
Finances,  he  was  pretty  sure  to  be  found  seated  at  the 
elbow  of  old  Tahir  Pasha,  the  director-general  of  the 
Mint,  of  whom  mention  has  been  made  in  the  second 
chapter  of  the  present  work.  However  important  the 
business  to  be  transacted  might  be,  or  whatever  might 


)  njRKET  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Obap.  XIX. 

the  quality  of  the  persons  repairing  to  the  oflBces  of 
se  two  great  government  officers,  if  the  dervish 
meed  to  be  widi  either,  he  kept  his  seat  of  honour  in 
rfect  ease  and  confidence.  It  has  often  been  noticed 
travellers  in  the  East  that  these  vagabond  dervishes 
I  unite  a  reputation  for  sanctity  with  the  profession 
1  practice  of  the  most  open  and  revolting  profligacy, 
1  that  a  fellow  can  be  a  saint  and  buffoon  all  in  one. 
he  has  a  touch  of  insanity,  or  acts  as  if  he  were 
latic,  he  is  only  the  more  respected  and  cherished  by 
ur  true  Turk.  If  to  the  wild  legends  of  Mahometan 
lerstition  and  the  dogmas  of  intolerance  he  can  unite 
'aried  collection  of  dirty  stories  and  all  the  gossip  of 
!  day,  he  is  a  companion  for  a  prince,  and  one  of 
:  best  mediums  of  obtaining  favours  Irom,  or  exer- 
ing  influence  over,  the  great  men  with  whom  he  asso- 
tes  so  familiarly.  This  fellow  who  monopolised  the 
nt  and  Finance  departments  was  very  fat,  being 
)ut  as  broad  as  he  was  long ;  he  had  a  hideous  coun- 
lance,  and  the  complexion  and  carbuncles  of  a  Iraig- 
ifirmed  drunkard. 

With  such  sociable  tastes  as  these,  with  their  harem 
item,  and  their  other  thoroughly  barbarous  arrange- 
(Uts  (a  si/stem  and  arrangements  d^xirted  from  by 
le  of  them),  it  may  be  fancied  that  these  members  of 
shid  Pasha's  reforming  government  were  not  at  all 
posed  to  cultivate  European  society,  or  to  give  access 
their  houses  to  men  like  me.  I  might  possibly  have 
ended  the  number  to  three,  but  it  was  oaly  from  orie 
jrk  in  the  service  of  government  that  I  had  friendly 
itations,  bucH  as  are  ^ven  in  civilized  countries — 
I  even  this  good  and  clever  man,  superior  as  he  was 


iiiS^ia. 


GsAP.  XIX.  AVEBSION  TO  EUROPEANS.  151 

to  all  the  Musgulmans  I  knew,  did  not  dare  infringe 
the  established  usage  of  women  or  the  laws  of  the  harem 
(which,  in  reality,  are  not  strictly  laws  of  the  Prophet). 
We  were  at  his  house  rather  frequently;  we  dined 
there  and  we  slept  there — for  to  return  from  Constan- 
tinople Proper  to  Fera  after  a  late  dinner  and  in  the 
night  was  an  enterprise  attended  not  by  much  positive 
danger,  but  by  a  very  positive  toil  and  discomfort — we 
heard  the  voice  of  his  wife,  we  saw  and  played  with  her 
child,  but  we  never  saw  her  even  under  the  yashmac; 
we  never  so  much  as  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  skirt  of 
her  feridjee :  and  this  was  in  the  house  of  one  who  was 
decidedly  the  most  enlightened,  most  Europeanized, 
and  witty  Osmanlee  I  ever  encountered.  In  his  sitting- 
room  were  Shakspeare  and  Milton,  Bacon  and  Locke ; 
and  the  Effendi  read  with  ease  these  works  in  their 
original  English,  and  took  in  the  spirit  of  them — and  his 
one  wife  (he  was  too  wise  to  have  more  than  one)  was 
shut  up  in  the  harem  I  Even  the  Turks  who  had  long 
d^  set  at  d^ance  the  rules  of  the  Prophet,  who  publicly 
drank  the  prohibited  juice  of  the  grape,  and  to  excess^  and 
who  laughed  at  the  Koran  as  *^  a  creed  outworn,"  had  not 
willed  or  had  not  dared  to  change  their  harem  system. 

As  general  conclusions,  I  fancy  that  the  opinions  of  a 
Ferote  who  had  been  behind  the  scenes,  and  had  lived 
much  with  great  Turks  (as  well  of  the  new  school  as  of 
the  old),  were  reliable  and  substantially  correct  ^^  Take 
my  word  for  it,"  said  he,  "  these  Turks  have  a  natural 
aversion  to  civilized  society.  They  may  get  on  pretty 
well  with  Franks  born  and  bred  in  the  country  like 
myself;  but  with  English  travellers  or  any  other  Eu- 
ropean strangers  they  axegSnds^  constrained,  and  oncom- 


152  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

fortable.  Their  habits  of  life  are  so  different  from 
yours ;  they  have  no  taste  for  your  amusements !  They 
are  frequently  obliged  to  act  a  part  all  day,  but  when 
the  evening  comes  they  leave  off  acting  and  become 
natural.  They  now  wear  clothes  like  your  own,  because 
so  it  has  been  commanded  by  the  reforming  govern- 
ments. But  do  you  think  they  like  these  tight  frock- 
coats  and  pantaloons  ?  Not  Aey  1  They  long  for  the 
evening  hour  when  they  can  throw  them  off  and  put  on 
their  old  loose  Turkish  garments,  and  cross  their  legs 
under  them  on  their  own  divans.  So  with  the  European 
manners  they  may  have  acquired  in  London,  or  Paris, 
or  Vienna,  or  here  in  Pera  by  associating  with  Franks. 
Your  manners  no  more  suit  them  than  your  clothes ; 
both  are  gSnafttes,  Then  they  like  buffoonery,  which 
to  you  would  be  unintelligible  or  insupportable;  and 
they  like  servility  and  flattery,  which  they  are  not  likely 
to  get  fix)m  you.  They  are  also  conscious  that  you  re- 
gard their  harem  system  and  their  seclusion  of  women 
with  disgust,  and  as  things  giving  the  lie  to  their  pre- 
tensions to  civilization.  In  the  houses  of  the  Ambas- 
sadors and  in  the  other  Frank  houses  which  some  of 
them  frequent,  they  see  your  ladies  and  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  treated.  It  is  my  opinion  that  until 
these  great  Turks  unveil  their  own  women  and  allow 
you  to  see  them  when  you  visit  them,  they  ought  not  to 
be  permitted  to  see,  and  sit  and  talk  with  your  ladies. 
When  they  enter  a  Christian  house  the  ladies  ought  all 
to  retire.  For  the  common  cause  of  their  sex  they 
ought  to  do  this;  and,  for  their  own  accounts,  they 
would  do  it,  if  they  did  but  know  how  these  great 
Turks  talk  about  them.     Those  who  are  not  powerfrd 


Chap.  XIX.  KMTN  PASHA.  153 

are  very  timid ;  and  those  who  have  been  educated  in 
England  or  France,  or  who  have  travelled  much  in 
Christian  countries,  know  full  well  that  they  are  sus- 
pected Mussulmans  and  that  sharp  eyes  are  watching 
them.  Depend  upon  it,  those  you  may  have  known 
in  London  are  afraid  of  being  seen  very  often  with  you 
at  Constantinople." 

Admitting  the  rationale,  the  facts  were  still  rather 
unpalatable.  There  was,  in  particular,  one  Turk  I 
had  to  see,  who  had  lived  long  in  England,  and  who  had 
received  extraordinary  attention  and  hospitality,  and  in 
a  great  measure  from  literary  men,  and  on  account  of  a 
promise  of  ability  that  was  in  him.  When  in  England 
he  was  what  a  Frenchman  might  call  un  pauvre  diable — 
he  was  recommended  neither  by  money  nor  by  birth — 
he  was  a  nobody  when  he  arrived.  At  Cambridge, 
where  he  showed  some  mathematical  talent,  he  was 
much  noticed  and  patronized ;  and  he  received  a  gra- 
tuitous instruction,  as  also  many  acts  of  kindness.  He 
had  left  England  a  few  years  ago,  professing  the  warmest 
gratitude.  Since  his  return  to  Constantinople  he  had 
gone  through  a  great  variety  of  grades  in  the  civil 
departments,  and  through  some  grades  that  would  not 
in  other  countries  be  occupied  by  civilians.  He  had 
been  shifted  about  from  place  to  place  in  the  true 
Turkish  fashion,  and  this  fashion  always  involves  what 
we  should  consider  anomalies  and  contradictions,  not- 
withstanding our  own  strange  usages  of  appointing  men 
to  be  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  who  know  nothing  about 
a  ship,  and  Secretaries  of  War  that  know  not  the  com- 
position of  a  corporal's  guard.  By  kismet,  or  by 
intrigue,  he  had  always  changed  places  for  the  better^ 


\ 


154  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

as  far  as  his  own  interests  were  concerned.  He  had 
been  superintendent  of  a  Mussulman  university,  which 
had  not  yet  been  created ;  superintendent  of  military 
schools ;  and,  if  I  remember  right,  he  was,  when  we  first 
arrived  at  Constantinople,  president  of  what  was  called 
the  Coimcil  of  War — he  being  a  man  as  warlike,  or 
as  well  versed  in  military  matters,  as  our  Bight  Hon. 
Thomas  Babington  Macaulay.  But  of  a  sudden  this  un- 
martial  man  had  passed  from  ike  grade  of  a  bey  to  that  of 
a  fiill-blown  pasha ;  and,  a  few  days  before  our  return  firom 
Asia,  had  been  appointed  Seraskier  of  Boumelia.  At 
our  return  from  Brusa,  the  ex-£ffendi,  or  Bey,  was,  of 
course,  a  very  high  potentate,  yet  it  took  me  and  those 
who  were  my  guides  a  vast  deal  of  trouble  to  find  out 
where  he  lived.  On  the  Pera  side  of  the  Golden  Horn 
nobody  could  tell  us ;  and  in  Constantinople  Proper,  as 
far  as  information  went,  we  were  not  much  nearer  the 
mark.  At  last,  after  a  long  hunt  through  the  tidnlj 
peopled  Turkish  quarters  of  Constantinople,  and  two 
serious  combats  with  the  unowned^dc^s,  I  found  out  the 
way  to  this  great  Emin  Pasha.  He  lived  in  a  big, 
tumble-down,  wooden  house,  in  the  rear  of  the  Serraglio, 
in  a  most  desolate  quarter,  where  the  dogs  were  more 
than  usually  numerous  and  noisy.  It  is  a  common 
saying  that  these  mangy  curs  know  a  Frank  by  his 
dress  and  walk,  and  cannot  help  barking  when  they  see 
a  hat  Hats  or  Franks  of  any  kind  were  very  rarely 
seen  in  this  dismal  part  of  the  city,  and  fearful  was  the 
barking  and  yelling  of  the  dogs  when  Tonco  and  I 
entered  it  Two  soldiers  of  the  imperial  guard  highly 
enjoyed  the  music,  or  the  sight  of  the  annoyance  it  gave 
to  me ;  and  they  hounded  the  curs  upon  us  by  making 


Chap.  XIX,  EMIN  PASHA'S  HANGERB-ON.  155 

certain  sounds  between  their  teeth.  We  were  on  foot, 
when  a  pack  of  forty  or  fifty  of  the  brutes  charged  down 
a  steep  and  dirty  lane  upon  us.  I  knew  by  long  exp^ 
rience,  obtained  now  and  in  former  years,  that  these 
mongrels  will  never  bite  unless  you  turn  to  run  away ; 
but  their  noise  was  most  distressing,  and  there  was  one 
b^  tawny  dog  among  &em,  bold  and  forward,  that 
showed  formidable  teeth,  and  &at  seemed  to  have  the 
intention  of  using  them  on  the  calf  of  my  ofi'-leg.  No 
sensible  man  ever  ventures  out  i^  Constantinople  with 
out  a  big  stick  or  a  huntiog-whip :  I  had  a  good,  hard, 
heavy  staff  in  my  hand,  and  I  applied  it  with  such 
happy  effect  on  the  impudent  brute's  nose,  that  he 
turned  tail  and  fled  up  the  hill.  He  returned  no  more 
to  the  chaise,  but  the  rest  of  the  pack,  encouraged  by 
the  two  soldiers,  followed  our  steps,  yelling  and  threat- 
ening, until  we  came  to  the  ruins  of  a  house  or  two 
which  had  been  burned  down  in  some  recent  conflagra*- 
tion.  "  Now,**  said  Tonco,  stooping  down  and^'picking 
up  some  stones  and  pieces  of  brick,  ^^  we  have  munitions 
of  war  I  **  I  furnished  myself  in  the  like  manner,  and, 
after  a  hot  fire  of  some  two  minutes,  we  beat  off  the 
foul-tongued  Lemures.  By  the  tim$  the  combat  was 
over  we  looked  something  like  a  couple  of  bricklayers' 
labourers.  In  this  plight  we  reached  the  dingy  abode 
of  tiie  grand  dignitary  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Son 
Excellence  was  not  at  home.  We  were  received  by  his 
tefterdar,  or  locum  tenens,  who  was  sitting  smoking  in 
a  dirty  rickety  room,  with  about  twenty  other  Turks, 
all  belonging  to  the  Pasha's  household.  In  a  corner  of 
the  room,  near  a  window,  there  sat  an  old  Armenian 
counting  over  money,  and  he  was  the  acly  man  that 


156  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

was  doing  anything  but  smoking.  It  was  a  bitterly 
cold  day.  An  immense  pan  of  burning  charcoal  was 
in  the  room ;  all  the  Turks  had  on  fur  pelisses  and 
their  inseparable  scarlet  fezzes ;  and  as  they  sat  round 
the  tripod,  solemn  and  silent,  and  every  man  with  his 
tchibouque,  they  might  have  been  taken  for  priests  of 
some  unknown  worship  engaged  in  their  mysterious 
rites.  The  Lieutenant  was  stately,  but  suflSciently 
courteous ;  and  there  was  a  secretary,  a  young  Osman- 
lee,  who  had  been  educated  at  Paris,  and  who  spoke 
French  very  well.  They  gave  us  tchibouques  and  un- 
usually large  cups  of  coffee.  The  coffee  was  so  wonder- 
fully fine,  that  I  believe  that  it  must  have  been  real 
Mocha,  which  one  rarely  tastes  now-a-days  in  any  part 
of  Turkey.  The  French  China  coffee-cups  were  strongly 
perfumed  with  some  Turkish  scents,  of  the  nature  of 
which  I  am  unacquainted.  This  perfume,  and  the 
excessive  strength  of  the  coffee,  had  a  very  pernicious 
effect  on  my  nerves  and  empty  stomach,  for  on  going  on 
these  pasha-seeking  expeditions  it  was  necessary  to  start 
from  Pera  long  before  our  breaktast-time.  After  some 
little  conversation,  which  on  the  part  of  the  Turks  con- 
sisted of  little  more  than  a  series  of  stereotyped  phrases, 
which  they  keep  in  reserve  for  all  Christian  travellers, 
and  which  mean  absolutely  nothing,  I  left  a  particular 
letter  (of  which  I  was  the  bearer  from  England  to  the 
Pasha),  said  I  would  call  again  in  a  day  or  two,  and 
took  my  departure,  leaving  the  Osmanlees  all  smoking, 
and  the  Armenian  still  counting  his  money.  In  the 
hall  there  was  a  crowd  of  menial  servants  waiting  to 
be  bdckshished.  I  was  glad  when  1  recovered  my  mud- 
boots  and  got  out  into  the  streets  and  the  cold  reviving 


CH.VP.  XIX.         INTERVIEW  WITH  EMTN  PASHA.  157 

air,  for  what  with  the  essence  of  coffee,  and  the  per- 
fume, and  the  fumes  of  the  charcoal,  and  the  smoke 
of  a  score  of  pipes,  all  going  at  once,  my  nerves  were 
all  ajar,  and  my  head  was  swimming. 

When  I  returned  I  found  his  Excellency  at  home 
and  visible.  He  received  me  with  great  pomp  and 
ceremony,  in  a  spacious  and  very  cold  saloon  covered 
with  splendid  Turkey  or  Persian  carpets,  and  exhibit- 
ing French  time-pieces  in  or-molu  frames,  and  other 
luxuries,  which  the  great  Turks  m6st  affect,  and  a  large 
bookcase  full  of  English  and  French  books,  richly 
bound,  a  sight  I  never  saw  in  the  house  of  any  other 
great  Turk.  But  greatness  had  come  too  suddenly 
Upon  the  once  humble  and  modest  Emin:  his  rapid 
rising  in  the  world  had  turned  his  head,  and  appeared 
to  have  had  the  effect  of  obliterating  all  recollections 
of  the  past.  He  did  not  seem  to  remember  that  he 
had  ever  been  in  England,  that  he  had  ever  been  a 
poor  student,  that  he  had  ever  received  acts  of  kind- 
ness from  men  whose  slighted  attention  was  an  honour. 
He  was  seated  on  a  broad  divan  covered  with  the 
richest  damask  silk  of  a  turquoise  blue  :  he  was  dressed 
most  effeminately  in  loose  shalvars  and  flowing  robes, 
wearing  over  all  a  costly  mantle,  all  skin  and  fur  within, 
and  bright  pink-coloured  Cashmere  cloth  vrithout:  he 
had  diamond  rings  on  his  fingers,  his  Nishan,  or  Order, 
was  all  blazing  with  big  diamonds,  and  the  amber  mouth- 
piece of  the  tchibouque  he  was  smoking  (as  well  as  of 
that  which  was  handed  to  me)  was  richly  mounted  with 
diamonds.  Perhaps  he  intended  to  dazzle  my  weak 
mind ;  certainly  his  Armenian  seraff  must  have  been 
determined  to  give  him  a  splendid  outfit  I     He  was  fast 


158  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XI3L 

forgetting  his  English.  He  was  growing  very  fat — ^as 
nearly  every  Turk  does  krhen  he  becomes  a  pasha — 
and  there  was  an  air  of  languor  and  listlessness  about 
him  that  was  exceedingly  disgusting.  He,  too,  gave 
me  the  immeaning  stereotyped  phrases.  When  I  turned 
the  conversation  out  of  the  regions  of  compliment  he 
had  very  little  to  say,  and  he  did  not  say  that  little  like 
a  man  of  talent.  He  dwelt  in  generals:  he  saw,  or 
pretended  to  see,  all  things  cauleur  de  rose^  bright  as  his 
own  vestments,  shining  like  his  own  diamonds:  the 
Ottoman  Empire  was  civilizing  itself,  the  regular  army 
was  increasing  in  number  and  efficiency,  a  good  many 
Turks  were  now  studying  mathematics,  Sultan  Abdul 
Medjid  was  the  best  of  sultans,  Beshid  Pasha  was  the 
greatest  of  viziers,  and  so  on.  To  every  question  I 
put  to  him  he  either  gave  me  an,  evasive  answer,  or  he 
told  me  that  which  was  not  true.  Thus  he  gave  a  false 
account  of  the  number  of  regular  troops  in  Roumelia, 
and  exaggerated  other  items  in  a  way  which  almost 
provoked  me  into  an  incredulous  smile.  I  saw  it  was 
useless  to  offer  any  remarks  about  the  state  of  the 
country  in  this  quarter,  and  my  discouragement  was 
made  perfect  when  he  spoke  of  statistics  and  political 
economy^  and  told  me,  with  a  solemn  face,  that  the 
science  of  public  economy  was  now  well  known  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  that  the  Forte  acted  according  to  its 
principles  I  He  was  going  to  take  his  departure  for 
Monastir,  his  head-quarters  in  Boumelia,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  days  (he  did  not  go  for  a  fortnight)  ;  his  house 
was  in  disorder,  but  if  I  should  take  Monastir  in  my 
travels  he  would  be  glad  to  see  me  in  his  konack* 
This,  with  the  pipes  and  the  coffee  (served  again  in 


mm 


Ghap.  XIX.    TURKISH  DIPLOMATIC  OOBBBSPONDENCK    159 

scented  cups)  was  the  extent  of  Emin  Pasha's  hospi- 
tality. But  nothing  remained  of  what  he  was ;  he  was 
now  a  most  Turkish  Turk,  puffed  up  wi&  his  own 
importance^  gravitating  to  the  old  Mussulman  ways, 
and  living  in  all  respects  like  a  ^^  three-tailed  Bashaw." 
A  fat,  oily,  Armenian  sera£^  who  had  funiished  him 
with  money  for  his  outfit,  and  who,  no  doubt,  had 
aided  him  in  getting  his  very  high  appointment,  came 
into  the  saloon,  and  humiliated  himself  most  vilely 
before  this  man  of  yesterday — this  gaudy  creature  of 
his  own  making.  First  he  was  announced  by  a  fellow 
in  a  gold-laced  jacket;  when  told  he  might  enter,  he 
prostrated  himself  at  the  threshold  of  the  door ;  when 
in  the  middle  of  the  room  he  knelt  again,  and  brought 
his  forehead  to  a  level  with  the  carpet ;  when  near  the 
edge  of  the  divan  where  we  were  seated,  he  made 
another  prostration,  and  actually  kissed  the  skirts  of 
the  Pasha's  mantle ;  and  when  he  sat  down  on  his  heels 
upon  the  carpet,  his  aspect  and  demeanour  were  most 
abject  In  tihis  way  do  the  very  greatest  of  the  Arme- 
nians always  behave  before  Turks  high  in  office.  The 
French-talking  secretary,  who  had  told  me  he  was 
always  longing  after  the  pleasures  of  the  Palais  JRoyalj 
brou^t  in  a  scrap  of  paper,  a  despatch  of  not  more 
than  six  lines.  Emin  glanced  his  eye  over  it,  said  it  was 
full  of  errors,  and  called  for  pen  and  ink  that  he  might 
correct  it.  He  soon  gave  up  the  task  in  despair,  threw 
tiie  paper  on  the  ground,  and  told  the  secretary  that  it 
must  be  re-written.  In  the  excitement  of  the  moment 
he  told  me  what  I  take  to  be  the  Ofdy  truths  I  heard 
from  his  lips.  He  said  that  the  Arabic  character  was 
perplexing,  and  very  ill  suited  to  the  Turkish  language ; 


^•^^ 


160  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

that  there  was  hardly  a  Turk  in  the  Empire  that  could 
write  his  own  language  correctly,  and  that  serious  mis- 
understandings were  constantly  occurring  in  government 
correspondence.  I  afterwards  heard  that  another  very 
great  pasha  always  sent  some  trusty  servant  to  explain 
vim  voce  the  contents  of  the  letter  or  despatch  of  which 
he  was  the  bearer.  I  have  seen  Turks  of  literary 
reputation  spend  half  an  hour  in  making  out  the  mean- 
ing of  two  or  three  lines  of  MS.  The  serafls  write 
Turkish  in  the  old  Armenian  characters,  which  are 
capable  of  conveying  every  Turkish  sound,  and  are 
clear  and  simple.  But  these  Armenians  cannot  write 
Armenian ;  and  the  Turks  will  persist  in  using  the  ill- 
adapted  Arabic  characters,  because  the  Koran  and  all 
its  commentaries  are  written  in  them.  I  believe  that 
Emin,  Seraskier  Pasha  of  Roumelia,  and  I,  the  author 
of  these  volumes,  like  Cowper's  hasty  pair  of  birds — 

"  Parted  without  the  least  regret, 
Except  that  we  had  ever  met  " 

here  in  Stamboul.  Although  the  story  has  been  told 
before,  I  will  repeat  an  anecdote  which  places  in  a» 
strong  light  the  domestic  arrangements  prevalent  among 
these  reform-and-new-school  Turks.  A  few  years  ago 
Emin  and  his  friend  Dervish  Effendi  (now  also  a 
pasha)  married  two  sisters,  and  being  both  very  poor  at 
the  time,  they  lived  in  the  same  house :  yet  Emin 
never  saw  the  face  of  the  wife  of  Dervish,  nor  Dervish 
the  face  of  the  wife  of  Emin.* 

*  I  am  infonned — ^though  only  by  English  and  foreign  joumalB  and 
public  report — ^that  both  Rayahs  and  Turks  were  dissatisfied  with  this 
Emin  Paslia'a  administration  in  Roumelia,  and  that  during  his  residence 
at  Monastir  serious  insurrections  broke  out  among  the  Bosniaks  and  Bul- 
garians. 

It 


'^'^ 


Chap.  XIX.  ACHMET  FETHI  PASHA.  161 

My  fidend Pasha,  who  had  promised  us  so  much 

of  his  company  when  the  Bamazan  should  be  over,  never 
came  or  sent  to  us  at  all.  We  saw  him  two  or  three 
times  at  his  office,  and  received  from  him  a  cold  civility 
and  pipes  and  coffee.  The  only  service  he  ever  rendered 
me  was  stepping  across  a  courtyard  to  facilitate  my  in- 
troduction to  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha,  Grand  Master  of 
the  Artillery,  and  one  of  the  Sultan's  brothers-in-law, 
to  whom  I  had  a  letter.  Achmet  Fethi — called  by 
some  of  the  English  "  Fatty," — ^was  very  fat  and  heavy : 
I  believe  he  was  not  more  than  forty-five  years  old,  but 
he  looked  much  older :  he  had  been  thin  and  low  enough 
at  one  time,  but  he  had  begun  to  fatten  on  attaining  to 
office ;  he  had  swelled  in  proportion  with  his  political 
greatness.  He  had  been  married  some  seven  or  eight 
years  to  a  Sultana,  one  of  the  daughters  of  the  late 
Sultan  Mahmoud.  His  origin  was  very  obscure ;  but  I 
believe  he  was  not  an  emancipated  Georgian  slave,  like 
Halil  Pasha,  who  had  the  honour  of  marryipg  another 
of  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid's  sisters,  or  AaZ^-sisters,  for  Mah- 
moud, it  was  said,  never  had  two  children  by  one  and 
the  same  woman.  Although  very  much  inflated,  as  well 
morally  as  physically,  he  appeared  to  me  to  be  an  easy, 
good-tempered,  and  well-meaning  man.  He  was  said  to 
be  generous  to  his  friends  and  dependents,  very  fond  of 
luxury  and  expense,  and  awftdly  deep  in  debt  to  the 
Armenian  sera£&.     He,  too,  had  travelled,  and  he  could 

It  appears  that  Emin  has  recently  been  removed  from  Monastir  to  Da- 
mascus, '*  in  order  to  reform  administratiye  abuses  (here,  and  to  introduce 
and  establish  throughout  Syria  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  the  Tan- 
zimaut."  « 

Very  probably,  while  I  am  writing  this  note,  he  may  have  been  removed 
to  some  other  place,  or  to  some  wholly  different  office. 

VOL,  II.  M 


162  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

speak  a  little  French.  I  found  him  at  the  usual  occu- 
pation of  pipe-smoking.  He  gave  me  the  usual  com- 
pliment of  tchibouque  and  coffee,  and  instructed  one 
of  the  officers  of  his  staff  to  give  his  orders  that 
we  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  grand  artillery- 
barracks  above  Pera.  He  seemed  to  take  some 
interest  in  agriculture,  and  to  understand  nothing 
about  it. 

He  spoke  of  manufactures  as  the  true  means  of 
enriching  the  empire.  He  had  sundry  manufactories 
of  his  own.  ^^If  Mussulmans  could  make  all  things 
for  themselves,  why  then  they  need  not  buy,**  &c.,  &c. 
His  few  other  remarks  betokened  no  knowledge  or 
ability  of  any  sort,  and  he  preferred  keeping  to  the 
stereotyped  phrases.  His  reception,  however,  was  kiud, 
and  I  was  induced  to  repeat  my  visit  after  a  few 
weeks,  in  the  hope  of  being  of  some  service  to  the  Sul- 
tan's model  farm,  and  to  my  friend  Dr.  Davis.  The 
doctor,  driven  to  despair  for  want  of  labourers,  had 
conceived  the  project  of  importing  some  emancipated 
negroes  from  South  Carolina,  to  add  to  his  four  indus- 
trious and  intelligent  blacks.  I  went  to  Achmet  Fethi 
to  explain  this  scheme,  and  the  advantages  derivable 
from  it.  Forty  or  fifty  free  negroes,  trained  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  cotton,  would  render  the  model-farm  imme- 
diately profitable,  and  would  show  the  people  of  the 
country  how  to  work ;  their  pay  and  maintenance  would 
cost  comparatively  nothing.  The  Grand  Master  of  the 
Artillery  seemed  to  listen  so  attentively,  and  to  assent 
so  readily,  that  I  thought  I  had  made  a  perfect  convert 
of  him ;  that  he  would  lay  the  case  before  his  brother- 
in-law  the  Sultan,  and  that  my  friend's  mind  would  be  set 


"SfP* 


Chap.  XIX.  ACHMET  JFBTHI  PASHA.  163 

at  ease  by  haying  a  good  supply  of  efficient,  controllable 
labour.  A  short  time  after  this^  my  second  visit,  the 
great  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha  drove  dov^n  to  the  village 
of  San  Stefano.  Though  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of 
the  Sultan's  model  farm,  he  did  not  give  himself  the 
trouble  of  going  to  it  He  sent  for  Dr.  Davis,  and  was 
very  kind  and  courteous  to  him.  When  the  doctor  was 
expecting  that  he  would  say  something  about  the  free 
black  labourers,  he  told  the  Doctor  that  he  had  been 
assured  by  some  Franks,  that  in  America  they  had  a 
race  of  people  that  were  quite  redy  and  had  square  heads. 
The  Doctor  said  that  there  were  wild  tribes  called  "Ked 
Indians,"  and  that  some  of  those  tribes  flattened  and 
squared  the  beads  of  their  infants  by  applying  pieces  of 
wood  to  the  skulls.  ^^  Pekk — WellP  said  the  Grand 
Master  of  Artillery ;  "  could  you  not  bring  over  one  of 
those  red  men  ?  The  sight  would  afibrd  much  amuse- 
ment to  the  Sultan.  It  would  be  a  surprise  to  him  I  I 
should  like  the  Padishah  to  have  a  red  man.'*  The  poor 
Doctor  was  taken  all  aback.  He  told  the  brother-in-law  of 
the  Commander  of  the  Faithful  that  these  red  men  were 
rather  difficult  to  catch,  but  that  if  the  Ottoman  govern- 
ment would  arrange  for  the  importation  and  employment 
of  free  negroes,  he  had  no  doubt  that  he  should  be  able 
to  bring  over  a  Red  Indian,  with  a  squared  head,  in  the 
same  ship  with  them.  ^^  But  Blacks  are  not  rarities  in 
Stamboul,"  said  Achmet  Fethi;  "we  have  plenty  of^ 
Blacks ;  the  Pallishah  has  plenty  of  them  in  his  own 
house.  But  a  red  man  I  Ah  I  that  would  be  a  surprise 
and  pleasure  to  him!"  All  this  scene,  which  lasted 
about  half-an-hour,  was  as  dramatic  and  droll  as  an  act 
in  the  "  Bourgeois  GentUhomme.'*     My  worthy  Ame* 

m2 


1 64  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

rican  friend  spoke  no  French  at  all,  and  if  he  could  have 
commanded  all  the  terms  of  agriculture  and  natural 
history,  I  much  douht  whether  the  Pasha  could  have 
understood  ten  of  them.  The  Doctor  had  with  him  a 
very  competent  drogoman,  but  this  man  was  not  allowed 
to  speak  because  Boghos  had  a  lout  of  a  son,  one  Arikel, 
who  had  been  some  time  in  England,  and  who  murdered 
Queen  Victoria's  English,  and  all  the  Dadians  were 
anxious  that  this  youth  should  show  off  before  this  very 
great  Pasha«  Therefore  Arikel  was  drogoman.  Dr. 
Davis  spoke  of  the  great  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
growing  (on  the  model  farm)  artificial  grasses,  trefoil, 
lucerne,  clover,  etc.  "P^i^,"  said  the  Pasha,  "but 
what  is  the  use  of  clover  ?  What  does  that  give  ?"  The 
Doctor  said,  among  other  things,  that  the  cows  which 
fed  upon  it  gave  an  increased  quantity  of  milk.  The 
Armenian  lout  left  out  the  cows  in  his  translation,  and 
told  the  Pasha  that  that  particular  grass  gave  a  wonder- 
ful deal  of  milk.  •*  Mashallah ! "  said  the  Grand  Master 
of  the  Artillery,  "  but  this  is  wonderful !  Docteur  Davees 
grow  much  of  that  grass !  Milk  from  grass !  it  is  most 
wonderful  J" 

I  had  a  letter  to  another  of  the  illustrious  brothers- 
in-law  of  the  Sultan,  which  I  never  presented.  I  tore 
it  in  pieces  and  threw  it  into  the  fire  when  I  became 
fully  acquainted  with  the  atrocities  of  the  man  to  whom 
it  was  addressed.  This  was  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  re- 
puted one  of  the  handsomest  men  m  the  Ottoman 
empire,  and  at  the  time  of  our  arrival  Capitan  Pasha. 
He  stood  convicted  of  two  foul  and  horrible  murders, 
and  of  murders  perpetrated  by  his  own  bloody  hand. 
He  gave  his  adhesion  to  the  reform  school  and  Reshid 


mm 


CiiAP.  XOL  HEHEHET  ALL  PASHA.  165 

Pasha,  and  tben  intrigued  against  him ;  he  revelled  in 
the  vice  which  is  as  repugnant  to  the  Koran  as  to  tiie 
Grospel,  and  yet  he  affected  to  be  a  zealous  Mussulman^ 
and  turned  his  house  into  a  Propaganda  Fidei  for  his 
own  purposes.  I  throw  his  antecedent  atrocities  into  a 
foot-note.* 

A  very  short  time  after  our  arrival  at  Constantinople, 
in  the  beginning  of  August,  1847|  this  beau-firere  of 
the  Sultan  was  suddenly  dismissed  from  his  post  of 
Capitan  Pasha,  or  Lord  High  Admiral  and  Minister  of 
Marine ;  but  he  was  as  suddenly  restored  in  the  spring 
of  1848,  and  when  we  left  Constantinople  in  the  month 
of  July  of  that  year,  he  was  still  Capitan  Pasha. 
These  sudden  and  capricious-looking  changes  and  resti- 
tutions could  hardly  ever  be  understood  except  by 
those  who  lived  within  the  walls  of  the  palace  or  had 
confidential  relations  with  some  of  the  Sultan's  chamber- 


*  Tbis  Mebemet  AH  Pa^s  bad  a  yoang  and  beautiful  Circassian  slave 
wbo  was  found  one  day  talking  witb  a  bandsome  Georgian  youtb,  wbo  was 
also  bis  slave.  His  jealousy  was  roused  ;  be  watcbed  tbe  Circassian  ;  bo 
detected  ber  conversing  tbrougb  a  latticed  window  witb  tbe  Georgian,  wbo 
was  in  tbe  garden  beneatb :  be  nisbed  upon  ber,  stabbed  ber,  and  nearly 
cut  ber  body  in  two  witb  bis  sbarp  yatagban.  Tbe  Georgian^  bearing  tbe 
screams  in  tbe  barem,  and  conjecturing  tbe  cause,  sprung  over  tbe  garden-* 
wall,  and  fled  for  bis  life.  He  repaired  to  Kiza  Pasba,  wbo  was  tben  in 
power,  and  wbo  bad  been  tbe  great  protector  of  bis  master,  Mebemet  Ali. 
He  told  bis  story  ;  be  vowed  tbat  notbing  but  a  few  words  bad  ever  passed 
between  bim  and  tbe  unbappy  Circassian,  and  bo  implored  protection. 
Wbetber  tbe  rogue  Riza  was  sincere  or  not  was  very  doubtful,  but  in  a  few 
days  be  solemnly  assured  tbe  Georgian  tbat  be  bad  interceded  witb  Mebemet 
Ali,  tbat  bis  master  bad  forgiven  bim,  and  tbat  be  migbt  now  safely 
return  to  bis  bouse.  Tbe  youtb  returned,  and  was  kindly  received  by  bis 
master ;  but,  a  few  evem'ngs  after  bis  return,  as  be  was  working  in  tbe 
garden,  bis  bead  was  cut  off.  Some  said  tbat  Mebemet  Ali  only  gave  tbe 
sign  to  two  of  bis  cavasses,  and  stood  by  wbile  tbe  deed  was  done ;  but  it 
was  more  generally  believed  tbat  be  gratified  bis  vengeance  by  being  bim- 
self  tbe  executioner. 


166  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

lains  or  black  eunuchs.  I  once  asked  a  native  Perote, 
who  knew  a  great  dea]^  why  Mehemet  All  had  been 
turned  out  of  office  in  August  He  shrugged  his 
shoulders  and  said,  ^*'Ehl  Man  Dieu  qui  le  salt  I 
Quelque  intrigue  de  Palais  T  I  asked  him  wliy  he 
had  been  restored  to  office  in  April.  His  answer  was 
stilly  ^^  Eh  I  Mon  Dim  qui  le  sait !  Quelque  intrigue 
de  Palais  r  Mehemet  Ali  could  never  go  to  sea  with- 
out suffering  dreadfiiUy  from  sea-sickness:  except  at 
a  distance,  he  hated  the  sight  of  a  ship,  and  he  was 
altogether  about  as  well  qualified  to  be  Chief  Admiral 
as  was  his  ill-favoured  and  ill-tempered  wife  the  Sultana. 
Two  or  three  years  ago,  when  the  Sultan  was  to  make 
a  short  cruize  in  the  Black  Sea,  the  Capitan  Pasha 
grew  sick  as  soon  as  the  ship  got  through  the  Bosphorus, 
and  fell  into  a  most  unmanly  panic  as  soon  as  she  began 
to  feel  the  waves  and  wind  of  tiie  Euxine :  tibe  Sultan 
fell  sick ;  all  the  great  men  lay  sprawling ;  the  Court 
astrologer  said  tiiey  were  mad  to  expose  the  Commander 
of  the  Faithful  to  such  sufferings  Ind  perils ;  and  so, 
when  they  had  advanced  about  two  leagues  above  the 
Giant's  Grave,  it  was  ^^  about  ship,*'  and  all  the  grandees 
came  back  to  one  of  the  imperial  palaces  on  the  Bos- 
phorus rather  more  dead  than  alive«  Before  being 
Lord  High  Admiral  this  depraved  man,  Mehemet  Ali, 
had  been  Grand  Master  of  the  Artillery,  and,  as  I 
was  assured  by  some  of  his  own  officers,  he  knew  as 
much  about  artillery  as  he  did  of  ships.  He  was  a 
man  of  the  lowest  extraction,  the  son  of  a  small, 
miserable  shopkeeper  in  Galata.  The  beauty  of  his 
person  attracted  the  notice  of  the  late  Sultan  Mahmoud 
himself,  or  of  some  of  those  execrable,  unmanned  men 


Chap.  XIX.  MEHEMET  ALI  PASHA.  167 

who  purveyed  for  him.  The  ragged  boy  was  taken 
into  the  palace  and  educated  among  the  itch  oghlans  or 
pages.  Such  creatures  are  nearly  always  provided  for 
in  the  highest  offices  of  the  state.  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  greatness  of  Mustapha  Nouree,  our  Brusa 
fidend;  such,  with  slight  variations,  was  and  is  the 
history  of  half  the  Magnates  of  the  reformed  Ottoman 
Empire.  The  Grand  Master  of  the  ArtiUery  is,  by 
right  of  his  office,  Governor  of  Tophana,  where  the 
great  trade  is  driven  in  Circassian  slaves,  and  where 
much  money  is  to  be  derived  by  "occult  means** 
or  by  oonnivance  in  crime  and  participation  in  cor- 
rupt jobbery.  By  these  means  Mehemet  Ali  had 
amassed  a  considerable  sum  of  money ;  his  household 
and  his  establishments  were  among  the  most  numerous 
and  most  sumptuous  in  the  city  before  be  became 
brother-in-law  to  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid.*  I  was  told, 
however,  that  before  such  alliance  was  brought  on  the 
tapis  he  was  in  debt  with  the  seraffs,  and  that  before 
the  alliance  was  completed  and  the  marriage  presents 
made  and  tiie  three  days'  marriage  feast  paid  for,  this 
debt  was  swollen  to  an  enormous  amount.  The  choice 
of  husbands  for  the  four  daughters  left  by  Sultan 
Mahmoud  (all  of  them  the  offspring  of  purchased  Cir- 
cassian slaves)  was  directed  by  money  and  liberality 

•  From  Lord  High  Admiral  this  very  incompetent  and  depraved  man 
bas  been  tnmed  into  Commander-'in-Chief  of  the  Forces.  At  least  I  con- 
clude that  the  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  lately  named  Seraskier,  can  be  none 
other  than  this  precious  brother-in-law  of  the  Sultan.  It  may  be  conceived 
how  such  a  man  would  conduct  a  war  against  the  Russians,  and  how 
valuable  a  co-^yperator  he  would  be  with  English  and  French  generals  and 
admirals,  were  we  ever  to  plunge  into  so  mad  a  scheme  as  a  war  against 
Bussta,  Austria,  &c.y  for  the  support  of  the  Turks,  and  in  alliance  xoitJ^ 
the  French, 


ua^mmm 


168  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

and  beauty  of  person.  The  four  husbands  selected  were 
all  handsome  men,  and  reputed  at  the  time  to  be 
wealthy:  I  believe  in  one,  if  not  in  two  cases  the 
greatness  was  thrust  upon  them  against  the  grain.  A 
Turk  must  submit  to  many  privations  before  he  can 
marry  royalty,  and  when  he  is  married  he  is,  within 
doors,  little  better  than  the  slave  of  the  Sultana ;  but 
no  man  could  safely  refiise  the  mighty  honour  when 
proposed  to  him — he  must  take  it  and  pay  enormously 
ibr  it ;  the  women  of  the  Serraglio  and  all  their 
guardians,  whether  black  or  white,  must  have  their 
presents ; .  £dl  the  mabainjees  or  courtiers  must  have 
theirs,  the  pages  must  be  gratified,  some  of  the  ulema 
must  be  propitiated,  and  backshish  must  be  distributed 
among  the  two  thousand  and  odd  hundreds  of  beings 
that  form  the  standing  household  of  Abdul  Medjid. 
Here,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  the  Armenian  serafi& 
come  into  play.  These  usurers,  as  I  have  said  before, 
have  their  hands  in  everything :  from  the  purchase  of 
a  cargo  of  Newcastle  coals  for  the  use  of  the  Arsenal, 
to  the  marrying  of  a  Sultana — nothing  can  be  done 
without  the  Armenian  sera&  I  These  alliances  flatter 
pride,  and,  by  giving  a  close  Court  connexion,  increase 
the  means  of  State  intrigue.  But  the  honoured  Pasha 
must  discard  all  other  wives  and  concubines,  and  if 
the  sister  of  the  Sultan  bear  him  male  children,  they 
must  all  die  tfie  death  I  Mehemet  Ali  had  a  beautiful 
wife,  and  one  that  was  said  to  be  fondly  attached  to 
him ;  but  he  put  her  away  to  marry  the  puny,  sickly 
daughter  (the  youngest)  of  Sultan  Mahnioud.  Of  all 
the  four  brothers-in-law  of  the  Padishah,  he  was  the  man 
to  feel  it  least ;  but  one  abomination  and  horror  has 


Chap.  XIX.    THE  CURSE  OF  MARBYINa  A  SULTANA.        169 

been  spared  him — his  imperial  wife  has  had  no  children 
— he  has  not  had  to  connive  in  a  damnable  infanticide, 
in  the  destruction  of  his  own  ofl&pring.  The  man  was 
twice  a  murderer,  he  was  notorious  for  other  guilt,  and 
the  history  of  his  early  life  was  such  as  has  been  intimated 
rather  than  described,  when  he  became  the  husband  of 
Abdul  Medjid's  half-sister.  Previously  to  this  grand 
alliance,  our  Ambassador,  Sir  S.  Canning,  filled  with 
disgust  and  horror  by  his  double  murder,  had  ceased  to 
invite  him  to  his  house  on  those  occasions  when  (as  I 
conceive  by  a  monstrous  mistake)  the  heads  of  govern- 
ment and  leading  Pashas  are  brought  into  the.  society  of 
Frank,  and  evmn  of  English  ladies,  and  treated  as  civi- 
lized men.  This  exclusion  was  a  moral  lesson;  the 
impressions  derivable  from  it  might  not  extend  very 
&r ;  Mehemet  Ali  might  have  been  rather  pleased  than 
otherwise  at  not  having  to  wear  a  mask  for  a  few  hours 
at  the  British  Embassy ;  but  still  it  was  a  moral  lesson, 
and  it  grieves  me  much  to  add  that,  after  the  imperial 
marriage,  it  was  considered  a  point  of  etiquette  or  policy 
to  invite  Mehemet  Ali  to  Ae  hou£$ie  of  the  representative 
of  Queen  Victoria.  I  should  think  that  this  necessity 
(considered  as  such  in  diplomacy,  though  not  by  me, 
nor  by  other  men,  whose  opinions  are  worth  much  more 
than  mine)  must  be  the  most  painM  ordeal  through 
which  an  English  ambassador  or  minister  can  be  driven : 
to  a  man  of  the  purest  life  and  the  highest  principle — 
to  a  man  of  aciite  sensibility,  like  Sir  Stratford,  I  should 
iancy  that  it  must  be  a  downright  torture.  And  can  an 
unsophisticated  Englishman  conceive  such  a  tableau  as 
the  upright  and  worthy  representative  of  his  virtuous 
Queen  being,  at  his  own  table,  balanced  on  one  side  by 


170  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

a  man  like  Mehemet  All  Pasha,  and  on  the  other  by 
some  great  Turk  not  much  better  ? 

Mehemet  Ali  I  would  not  see.  I  saw  two  or  three 
other  Pashas  of  the  highest  rank,  and  found  them  as  fat 
and  dull  as  Achmet  Fethi,  without  a  tithe  of  his  good- 
nature. The  Grand  Master  of  Artillery  made  no  great 
pretensions  to  science  or  knowledge  of  any  kind ;  but  I 
found  some  who  had  the  conceit  of  the  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affiurs  without  any  of  his  abiUty,  and  who, 
like  Emin,  told  me  that  the  Porte  now  well  knew  the 
principles  of  political  economy  and  acted  up  to  them. 
"  Nov^  connaissons  lee  principee  de  Viconomie  pyblique^^ 
etc.  I  could  not  help  saying  to  one  of  diem,  that  I  saw 
no  proofe  of  this  knowledge  or  this  action ;  that  I  could 
not  take  as  proof  their  laying  heavy  export  duties  on 
their  silk  and  other  produce,  in  their  fixing  maximum 
prices,  or  in  their  vain  efforts  to  force  on  and  establish 
manufactures  before  they  had  got  their  agriculture  out 
of  its  primitive,  rudest  state,  and  before  they  had  made  a 
single  road.  The  great  man  said  that  it  was  to  be 
expected  that  I,  as  ^n  Englishman,  should  feel  some 
jealousy  at  the  progress  Turkey  was  making  in  manu- 
factures, and  should  not  approve  of  establishments  which 
would  soon  render  the  country  independent  of  England 
for  her  supplies.  His  political  economy  evidently 
resolved  itself  into  the  short  dogma  which  was  neatly 
expressed  by  an  Italian  friend : — 

*•  Vendere  wmprt  e  non  camprare  mat,** 

To  one  grandee,  who  spoke  of  the  enormous  expense 
of  the  army,  I  su^ested  the*  plan  of  a  local  militia, 
which  I  had  discussed  in  England  with  Colonel  Tulloch 
and  some  other  military  friends  who  were  well  acquainted 


Chap.  XDL      SUGGESTIONS  FOB  AGRICULTURE.  ;  171 

with  the  East.  The  Pasha,  who  said  he  would  take  it 
into  consideration,  very  probably  forgot  all  about  it  by 
the  morrow.  The  inaouciance  of  these  men  was  mar- 
vellous. So  was  their  indolence.  Whether  in  their 
houses  or  in  their  offices,  I  could  neyer  see  them  en- 
gaged in  anything  that  looked  like  work  or  real  business. 
During  their  office  hours  they  sat  in  state,  cross-l^ged 
on  their  diyans,  and  smoked.  If  the  people  who  came 
into  them  were  of  sufficient  importance,  they  were 
helped  to  tchibouques,  and  they  smoked.  Few  words 
passed  between  them.  If  a  paper  required  the  signa- 
ture, or  rather  the  seal  of  the  Pasha,  his  seal-bearer 
dipped  his  seal  in  ink,  prepared  it  for  the  impression, 
and  held  the  paper  to  his  hand.  Few  of  these  great 
men  were  learned  enough  to  read  tibiat  which  they  signed. 

I  had  put  together  some  notions  as  to  the  means  of 
organizing  cheap  Turkish  schools  for  the  poorer  classes, 
but  I  saw  it  was  useless  to  present  them;  and  my 
oounfaryman  and  friend,  Mr.  Sang,  who  had  been  five 
years  in  the  service  of  the  government,  and  who  was 
admirably  qualified  to  form  and  dii^ct  a  system  of  edu- 
cation, had  been  thwarted  at  every  step.  In  five  years 
the  only  thing  he  had  done  for  government  had  been  to 
calculate  the  eclipse. 

While  travelling  in  Asia,  and  witnessing  day  by  day 
the  deplorable  state  of  agriculture,  and  the  ruinous 
effect  of  exorbitant  interest,  I  had  devised  a  scheme, 
and  had  thought  of  laying  it  before  Beshid  Pasha.  I 
had  not  been  three  weeks  back  in  Constantinople  ere  I 
was  thoroughly  convinced  that  this  reforming  vizier  was 
no  better  than  the  rest  of  the  pashas,  and  that  it  would 
be  utterly  useless  to  suggest  any  such  means  of  improve- 


-ta^ 


t^i^^m^mmm^mmi^m 


172  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

ment.  If  afterwards  I  spoke  of  the  scheme  to  one  or 
two  men  connected  with  the  government,  it  was  to  hear 
what  they  would  say  about  it,  and  not  with  any  hope  of 
their  adopting  it.  The  project  was  simple  and  obvious. 
Upon  certain  conditions,  and  prudent  arrangements, 
money  might  soon  be  procured  from  England  at  10  per 
cent,  and  an  impulse  given  to  agriculture,  and  good  ex- 
amples set  in  road-making,  and  in  European  activity, 
order,  and  neatness.  A  company  might  be  formed,  to  be 
caUed  "  The  Anglo-Ottoman  Agricultural  and  Agricul- 
tural-Loan Company.*'  If  the  Porte  would  allow  such  a 
Company  to  buy  and  hold  in  its  own  name  one  extensive 
chiftlik  or  farm,  if  it  would  sanction  the  settlement  on 
that  farm  of  fifteen  or  twenty  decent  intelligent  English 
families,  and  if  it  would  permit  the  Company  to  take 
the  same  security  for  loans  which  were  now  given  to  the 
Rayah  Armenians,  I  believed  that  such  a  Company  might 
easily  be  formed  in  London,  that  it  would  confer  inesti- 
mable benefits  on  Turkey,  and  that  it  would  lead  to  the 
establishment  of  other  such  associations  in  France, 
Switzerland,  etc.  I  disclaimed  any  exclusiveness,  or 
jealousy,  or  monopolizing  spirit  Let  every  advanced 
coimtry  in  Europe,  if  it  would,  have  its  chiftlik  and  its 
little  colony  (too  little  to  cause  any  umbrage),  in  some 
part  or  other  of  Turkey ;  and  let  it  send  such  settlers  as 
would  do  honour  to  itself  and  show  a  good  example  to 
the  Turks,  who  have  never  properly  seen  what  they 
ought  to  do,  and  who  really  do  not  know  how  to  begin 
anything  in  agriculture,  building,  or  road-making,  in  the 
right  way.  I  would  have  an  English  model  village,  and 
a  recti  model  farm — say  somewhere  beyond  the  malaria 
range — in  the  magnificent  plain  between  Mohalich  and 


Chap.  XIX.      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  AGRICULTURE.  173 

the  gulf  and  port  of  Fandennk.  Besides  English  agri- 
culturists I  would  have  two  or  three  English  carpenters, 
one  or  two  good  English  wheelwrights,  two  good  smiths, 
and  one  or  two  other  useful  artizans.  I  would  ^  also 
have  a  man  well  acquainted  with  the  science  of  breeding 
and  improving  horses  and  cattle.  All  these  men  should 
have  their  apprentices  or  pupils — Turks,  Greeks,  or 
Armenians.  Twelve  or  more  young  men  of  the  country 
— to  be  changed  every  two  years — should  be  kept  on 
the  farm ;  and  the  farm  and  the  view  of  the  implements 
in  use,  and  of  the  improvements  effected,  should  be  at 
aU  times  open  to  the  farmers  of  the  country.  To  these 
last  exclusively,  and  not  to  any  other  class,  loans  should 
be  made.  It  would  gladden  their  now  breaking  hearts, 
it  would  put  a  new  life  into  them  to  have  to  pay  only 
10  per  cent,  for  advances  ;  and  in  process  of  time 
this  interest  might  be  brought  down  much  lower.  The 
Sultan's  model  farm  at  San  Stefano  was  costing  him 
enormous  sums ;  his  ill-considered  manufactories  were 
swallowing  up  many  millions  of  piastres  annually.  My 
model  farm  would  not  cost  the  Sultan  or  the  country  a 
para^  and  it  would  soon  be  the  means  of  pouring  annual 
millions  into  his  treasury.  If  other  similar  establish- 
ments were  authorized,  and  properly  conducted,  if  a  few 
such  model  chiflliks  and  small  colonies  were  allowed  to 
take  root  in  different  parts  of  the  Sultan's  Asiatic  and 
European  dominions,  each  district  which  had  one  of 
them  might  be  expected  to  improve,  and  the  improve- 
ment would  gradually  spread  from  one  district  to 
another;  roads  would  be  made,  and  the  produce  of 
the  interior  would  find  its  way  to  the  coast  without 
being  eaten  up  on  the  journey.     Everywhere  rich  and 


IPPfi  X 


174  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

beautifiil  lands  were  lying  uncultivated.     Everywhere 
the  cultivated  parts  were  mere  patches.     With  money 
at  easy  interest^  and  with  roads  to  a  market,  the  people 
would  assuredly  extend  their  tillage.     Crushed  by  the 
Armenian  seraffs,  checked  by  the  want  of  fpads,  they 
could  only  languish  in  poverty,  and  become  every  year 
less  and  less  capable  of  paying  the  contributions  to  the 
state.     For  only  three  years  the  Anglo*Ottoman  chiftlik 
should  be  exempted  from  all  taxes  and  imposts  whatso^ 
ever,  in  order  that  a  liberal  development  might   be 
given  to  the  making  of  roads,  draining,  planting  of  trees, 
erecting  of  neat  and  substantial  buildings,  and  other 
improvements.     But  after  such  period  the  farm  should 
pay  the  ushur  like  any  other  chiftlik  in  the  country,  as 
also  the  salianS,  etc.,  but  upon  a  fixed,  equitable  prin- 
ciple.    The  Company  should  be  free  to  sell  its  produce 
in  the  best  market    For  the  police :  the  resident  director, 
or  two  of  them,  should  have  some  such  authority  over 
the  colonists  and  native  labourers,  as  is  possessed  by  a 
county  magistrate  in  England ;  and  all  serious  disputes 
and  litigations  should  be  referred,  not  to  the  Pasha  at 
Brusa,  and  the  British  consul  there,  but  to  the  Forte 
and  our  Embassy  at  Constantinople.     If  willing,  sub- 
jects of  the  Forte,  Osmanlees  or  Rayahs,  might  have 
shares  in  the  Company ;  and  the  Vizier  and  the  Beis 
Effendi  tor  the  time  being,  or  any  two  other  ministers 
of  the  Forte,  mighty  in  right  of  office,  be  patrons  or 
presidents  of  the  Company,  with  the  faculty  of  examin- 
ing accounts  and  all  proceedings.     Details  of  the  archi- 
tecture of  this  castle  in  the  air  would  be  tedious :  the 
above  is  a  broad   sketch  of  the   fabric.     The  Turks 
knocked  it  down  at  once,  by  declaring  that  it  was  con- 


^^^H^iP 


■L   .      aiii-^i 


Chap.  XIX.      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  AGRICULTURE.  175 

traiy  to  their  religion  and  usages,  and  opposed  not  only 
to  their  laws,  but  to  the  laws  of  England,  France,  etc. 
Before  a  foreigner  could  purchase  and  hold  land  in 
England  he  must  be  naturalized  ;  and  without  holding 
land  he  must  be  subject  to  English  law  so  long  as  he 
lived  in  England.  In  Turkey,  by  the  capitulations 
granted  in  former  times  to  different  nations  of  Christen- 
dom, Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Germans,  etc.,  could 
and  did  live  in  Turkey  without  being  subjected  to 
Turkish  law ;  but  it  would  be  too  much  to  expect  the 
Forte  to  allow  them  to  purchase  and  hold  estates.  A 
Christian  Rayah  might  hold  land  as  well  as  a  Mussul- 
man, but  to  be  a  landed  proprietor  a  man  must  be  the 
Sultan's  own  subject.  No  doubt  such  a  Company  as  I 
contemplated  might  have  an  extensive  chiftlik  for  a  very 
little  money  if  they  chose,  but  they  must  hold  it  in  the 
name  of  a  Eayah  subject,  as  many  houses  and  gardens 
at  Constantinople  and  on  the  Bosphorus  were  held.  I 
told  one  of  these  men  that  no  Company  of  Englishmen 
or  Frenchmen  would  invest  capital  on  such  a  fiction. 
I  endeavoured  to  explain  to  him  that  the  advanced  and 
over-peopled  countries  of  Europe  stood  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent position  from  Turkey,  that  wanted  people,  capital, 
good  example,  and  almost  everything  else  except  fertile 
soil  and  fine  climate;  that,  in  the  circumstances,  the 
Forte  might  safely  make  a  few  exceptional  cases,  in 
order  to  try  an  experiment  which  would  cost  them 
nothing,  and  which  might  be  attended  with  vast  benefits 
to  the  country.  Franks  could  not  be  expected  to  give 
up  their  nationalities  and  become  Rayah  subjects  of  the 
Sultan.  They  could  not  even  live  under  Mussulman 
law.     Long  ago  the  Turks  had  made  one  great  and 


SMM 


■       ■'!*' 


176  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

general  concession ;  for  more  than  two  hundred  years 
the  Frank  Christians  settled  in  the  country  had  been 
allowed  to  live  under  their  own  laws,  as  administered 
by  their  embassies  and  consulates.  The  total  number 
of  Christians  so  living,  in  the  whole  empire,  was  im- 
mense. Could  not  the  Porte  go  a  little  further,  and 
allow  a  few  respectable  men — for  whose  morality  and 
uprightness  of  intention  they  might  have  the  guarantee 
of  the  friendly  British  government— to  hold  a  little 
land  in  their  own  names  ?  Such  men  might  come  and 
live  in  the  country,  free  of  all  its  other  laws :  the  ex- 
ceptional cases  might  be  strictly  limited.  ^^No !"  said 
my  Turk,  '*  if  Europeans  were  to  come  among  us  in 
that  way,  and  to  hold  estates,  they  would  soon  drive  us 
out  of  the  country  1"  I  told  him  that  it  was  better  to 
be  driven  out  than  to  die  out — as  the  Turks  were  now 
doing.  I  translated  for  his  edification  the  fable  of  the 
dog  in  the  manger.  "You  are  doing  nothing  your- 
selves," said  I,  "  and  you  will  allow  nobody  to  do  any- 
tibiing  for  you.  You  have  one  of  the  finest  countries  in 
the  world,  and  you  leave  it  as  a  wilderness,  making 
hardly  any  use  of  it  yourselves  and  excluding  all  others. 
But  you  cannot  continue  your  exclusion  long.  If  you 
cultivate  your  soil,  there  is  a  market  for  your  produce 
in  Christendom  ;  if  you  do  not,  others  must  have  the 
country  that  will.  There  is  a  law  of  nature  stronger 
than  the  law  of  nations.  There  are  considerations  before 
which  European  jealousies  as  to  occupation,  and  treaties 
of  guarantee,  whether  bipartite,  or  tripartite,  or  quadri- 
partite, will  evaporate  like  water  in  your  burning  sun. 
The  old  countries  of  Christendom  are  all  getting  over- 
peopled.    We  are  annually  throwing  ofl^  shoals  of  colo- 


Chap.  XIX,  ABMENIAK  USURERS.  177 

nists  to  ihe  remotest  r^ons  of  the  earth,  to  the  anti- 
podes. England,  France,  Grermany,  Italy,  Belgium, 
Holland,  and  nearly  every  country  you  can  name,  all 
want  room  ;  and  they  will  and  must  have  it !  While 
your  Mussulman  population  is  decreasing,  our  peoples 
are  increasing  at  an  immense  annual  ratio.  You  are 
not  at  the  antipodes.  By  steam-navigation  we  from 
England  can  reach  some  of  your  fairest  and  most  fertile 
provinces  in  thirteen  days ;  from  the  southern  coast  of 
France,  and  from  Italy,  you  can  be  reached  in  four  or 
five  days.  Christendom  will  not  be  starved  out,  nor 
will  emigrants  long  continue  to  seek  room  and  homes  in 
the  distant  corners  of  the  earth,  when  Turkey  is  so  near 
to  them,  so  enticing,  and  so  defenceless.^  My  Osmanlee 
said  litde  more  than  that  as  he  would  not  be  allowed  to 
hold  an  estate  in  England,  so  /  had  no  right  to  com- 
plain of  not  being  permitted  to  hold  one  in  Turkey. 
The  Turks  are  uncommonly  fond  of  this  quid  pro  quo 
style  of  argument.  I  have  had  some  of  the  unsoundest 
principles,  some  of  the  grossest  follies  existing  in  the 
administrations  of  the  old  European  countries,  thrown 
into  my  teeth  as  triumphant  justifications  of  Ottoman 
blundering  and  mismanagement 

I  never  talked  to  a  Greek  of  the  country  or  to  an 
Armenian  (unconnected  with  the  serafis),  or  even  to  a 
Mussulman  if  he  were  unconnected  with  the  Forte  and 
free  of  debt  to  the  Armenians,  but  received  with  appro- 
bation every  part  of  my  project.  They  all  agreed  that 
nothing  could  be  done  in  agriculture  unless  the  rate  of 
interest  were  greatly  reduced  and  good  examples  set  to 
the  people. 

The  Armenian  serafis  are  leagued  together;   they 

VOL.  II.  N 


178  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

have  got  nearly  all  the  money  of  the  country  into  their 
hands ;  they,  and  they  only,  really  regulate  the  finances 
and  all  other  business  of  the  empire ;  they  have  over  all 
the  great  Turks  the  power  which  the  creditor  has  over 
the  debtor;  and  they  have  most  determinately  but 
blindly  made  up  their  minds  to  keep  up  the  enormous 
price  of  money.  I  will  here  quote  the  opinions  of  a 
very  able  Englishman,  who  had  studied  the  subject  on 
the  spot  during  fourteen  years.  My  friend  Mr.  L 
in  his  correspondence  with  a  London  journal,  had  re- 
peatedly and  severely  criticised  the  serafi^-system.  An 
Armenian  published  in  a  Malta  newspaper  an  apology 
for  the  seraflfe.  His  letter— otherwise  worthless — pro- 
voked the  following  rejoinder  irom  my  firiend : — "  The 
occupation  of  the  serafis  is  notorious : — they  are  neither 
more  nor  less  than  usurers, — usurers  in  the  worst  and 
widest  signification  of  the  word.  The  *  Barings  of 
Turkey  *  lend  out  their  money  at  the  moderate  rate  of 
8i  piastres  per  month  on  every  Turkish  purse,  or  500 
piastres,  which  amounts  to  20  per  cent  per  annum  1 
There  is  scarcely  a  servant  of  the  Government  that  is 
not  down  for  more  or  less  in  their  books.  But  the  20 
per  cent,  per  annum  on  their  advances  forms  the  least 
part  of  their  gains.  The  time  comes  when  each  of  their 
clients  is  enabled,  through  their  money  and  their  in- 
trigues, to  purchase  a  place  or  a  Fashalik  in  the  inte- 
rior, and  necessarily  in  the  absence  of  anything  like 
hereditary  riches  among  the  Turks,  none  but  such  as 
have  their  support  and  are  involved  beyond  redemption 
in  their  toils,  can  have  the  remotest  chance  of  advance* 
ment  An  honest  and  uncontaminated  Turk  never  for 
a  moment  dreams  of  such  a  thing.     Well,  with  the  day 


Chap.  XIX.  ABMENIAX  USUBKKS.  179 

of  appointment  to  a  |dace»  die  long-expected  harvest  of 
the  seraff  begins — the  hour  of  wholesale  plunder  is  at 
hand.  Not  satisfied  with  charging  die  money  he  has 
actoally  sp^it  in  these  secret  negotiations,  he  puts  down 
enormous  items  for  ima^nary  presents  of  amber  mouth- 
pieces) jewels,  &c.  to  ministers,  mabaiiyeeSf  ke^  and — on 
the  imaginary  not  less  than  the  bandjide  disbursement — 
substantial  and  accumulated  interest  is,  to  the  last  para, 
required.  Under  these  circumstances,  he  of  course 
takes  care  not  to  lose  sig^t  of  his  debtor,  so  that  every 
Turkic  beast  of  prey  that  goes  forth  to  the  provinces 
is  accompanied  by  his  Armenian  jackal !  Now,  perhaps, 
the  amiable  correspondent  of  the  Malta  Mail  (his 
travels  in  this  country  having  probably  not  extended 
farther  than  from  Stamboul  to  the  Princes*  Islands) 
may  here  inquire,  what  mischief  can  possibly  arise  irom 
transactions  so  pleasant  and  so  profitable  as  these  ?  If 
he  likes,  I  will  explain  it  to  him — I  have  widi  my  own 
eyes  seen  the  consequences  of  these  usurious  measures. 
I  have  seen  (in  the  year  1846-7)  villages  ruined  and 
depopulated  by  hundreds — nay,  I  have  witnessed  the 
progress  of  depopulation  itself.  I  have  seen  families  in 
the  depth  of  winter,  men,  women,  and  children,  half  or 
wholly  naked,  shivering  with  cold  and  perishing  with 
hunger,  driven  from  their  habitations  in  the  Pashalik  of 
Mosul,  and  seeking  refuge  from  the  tender  mercies  and 
paternal  government  of  the  Porte,  even  in  the  territory 
of  the  ruthless  tyrant  Bedr-Khan-Bey !  The  man  who 
was  chiefly  instrumental  in  bringing  Mosul  to  its  present 
forlorn  and  desolate  state,  was  Keritlu  Oglou  Mehemet 
Pasha.  Would  you  wish  to  know  what  has  become  of 
him?    His  story  is  instructive,  and  I  shall  copy  it 

N  2 


180  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

verbatim    from  the  correspondence  of  the  *  Morning 
Post,'  under  date  of  the  4th  of  October :  — 

"  *  Denounced   by  the  European  consuls  and  con- 
victed before  the  Council  of  State,  of  the  most  horrible 
crimes,  he  was  degraded  from  his  rank  and  title,  stripped 
of  his  ill-gotten  wealth,  and  sentenced  to  an  ignominious 
death.     But  the  Sultan's  clemency  was  appealed  to,  his 
life  was  spared,  and  the  sentence  of  death  commuted 
into  one  of  exile.     In  less  than  three  years  that  also  has 
been    remitted — ^he  has  returned   to  Constantinople; 
nor  is  that  all — his  rank  has  been  restored  to  him,  and 
— will  it  be  believed  ? — all  this  is  but  preparatory  to 
his  being  invested  with  another  Fashalik  I     Thus  it  is 
certain  more  villages  will  be  ruined  and  their  inhabit^ 
ants  set  adrift,  either  to  die  in  the  woods,  or  to  join  the 
wandering  and  robber  tribes  of  the  desert.   For  heaven's 
sake  let  the  Sultan  keep  some  of  his  compassion  for  his 
unoffending  subjects !    Neither  must  it  be  supposed  that 
the  case  of  Keritlu  Oglou  is  a  singular  or  a  solitary 
one.      A   great  majority,  not  only  of  the  provincial 
Pashas,  but  also  of  the  Cabinet  Ministers,  have  at  one 
time  or  other  been  guilty  of  the  grossest  malversation. 
By  what  means  then,  you  will  ask,  do  they  contrive  not 
only  to  escape  punishment^  but  recover  their  lost  rank 
and  places?     The  whole  secret  of  the  matter  is,  that 
they  are  over  head  and  ears  in  debt,  and  that  which  in 
every  other  country  tends  to  overwhelm  a  man,  here  has 
the  contrary  effect  of  buoying  him  up.     The  Armenian 
serafis  or  usurers,  who  are  all  powerful,  must,  in  order  to 
refund  themselves,  find  places  for  their  debtors,  however 
criminal,  and  hence  the  system  of  universal  impunity^ 
To  the  above-mentioned  fact,  there  would  be  others 


Chap.  XIX.  ARMENIAN  USURERS.  181 

innumerable  of  a  similar  nature  to  add — but  I  shall 
confine  myself  to  the  recent  appointment  to  the  Pashalik 
of  Diarbekir  of  wA.skar-Ali  Pasha,  the  monster  in  human 
shape,  who,  at  the  earnest  remonstrances  of  Sir  Stratford 
Canning,  was  ejected  from  Tripoli  for  the  cold-blooded 
murder  of  his  prisoners  the  Arab  chiefe  and  their 
children — to  the  appointment  of  Izzet  Pasha,  who  had 
been  guilty  of  every  species  of  rapacity  and  peculation 
in  Roumelia*  Both  these  men  had  accounts  to  settle 
with  their  seraffs,  and  it  was  necessary  therefore,  no 
matter  with  what  danger  or  prejudice  to  the  Sultan's 
subjects,  that  they  should  be  replaced.  The  abominable 
nature  of  the  system  may  be  conceived  when  it  is 
known  that  almost  every  Turkish  functionary  is  in  the 
same  predicament — that  few,  very  few  can  succeed  in 
extricating  themselves  from  the  clutches  of  these  usurers 
— and  if  some  of  them,  such  for  instance  as  Negib 
Pasha  of  Bagdad,  do,  after  a  long  career  of  spoliation, 
become  eventually  the  creditors  of  their  seraiFs — the 
latter  sufier  scarcely  any  detriment  thereby,  as  they 
continue  to  be  their  agents,  and  the  whole  traffic  of 
corruption  continues  to  pass  through  their  hands. 
Vainly  are  Firmans  issued  almost  monthly,  prohibiting 
bribes  and  presents  of  every  description.  Through  the 
secret  channels,  or  the  cloaca  rather,  of  the  serafis,  the 
tide  of  venality  circulates  unseen.  Presents  and  bribes 
are  no  longer  made  openly — sums  of  money  are  secretly 
transferred  from  one  fimctionary's  account  to  another's 
— and  a  system  of  mutual  connivance  and  accommoda- 
tion prevails  among  the  whole  body  of  the  seraffs— it  is 
one  vile  mass  of  putrefaction,  and  at  the  head  of  it 
and  the  Armenian  nation  are  the  ^  ancient  and  distin- 


182  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XIX. 

guished  family  of  the  Dooz  Oglous/  It  is  the  sheerest 
nonsense  to  say  that  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
system ;  without  their  support  and  co-operation  it  could 
not  stand  for  a  moment"* 

This  exposition  proceeded  from  a  gentleman  who 
was  better  acquainted  with  the  condition  of  the  country 
than  almost  any  Frank  in  it,  who  had  recently  returned 
from  a  most  extensive  tour  in  the  Asiatic  provinces, 
and  who,  as  I  have  before  intinuited,  was  so  friendly 
to  the  Ottoman  Empire  that  he  might  almost  foe 
called  a  Philo-Turk.  If  the  reader  will  attentively 
consider  his  straight-forward,  uncontradicted,  and  unde- 
niable statements,  he  will  have  a  perfect  clue  to  many 
mysteries  otherwise  inexplicable.  The  Armenian  scribe 
who  provoked  this  exposure  must  have  sorely  repented 
of  his  folly.  In  concluding  his  very  long  letter,  my 
friend  said: — ^^  While  this  sort  of  combination  lasts, 
there  can  be  no  hope  of  regeneration  or  prosperity  for 
the  Ottoman  Empire.  How  is  it  possible  that  capital 
can  flow  into  legitimate  channels,  while  through  pol- 
luted ones,  like  these !  such  enormous  profits  are  secured  ? 
It  is  well  known  and  it  has  long  been  felt  that  the 
great  desideratum  in  this  country,  both  for  commercial 
and  agricultural  purposes,  is  a  National  Banking  esta- 
blishment The  Minister  of  Finances,  Sarim  Pasha, 
has,  since  his  accession  to  office,  most  strenuously  ex- 
erted himself  to  realize  such  a  project,  but  in  every 
instance  have  his  endeavours  been  defeated  by  the 
sullen  ill-will  and  stubborn  opposition  of  the  serafis. 
And  indeed,  if  we  take  into  consideration  the  circum- 
stances I  have  explained,  we  can  feel  no  surprise  at 

•  « Malta  Times/  November  30,  1847. 


Chap.  XIX.  INSTABILITY  OF  SERAFFS.  183 

their  opposition.  Their  occupation  would  undoubtedly 
suffer  from  anything  in  the  shape  of  fair  competition 
and  reasonable  profit  I  know  it  to  be  the  deliberate 
opinion  of  a  gentleman  employed  by  the  Porte  to  intro- 
duce agricultural  improvements  here  (Dr.  Davis),  that 
no  branch  of  industry  can  thrive,  that  the  growth  of 
cotton  and  farming  in  general,  which,  with  the  natural 
advantages  of  the  soil,  ought  to  be  so  lucrative  in 
this  country,  can  have  no  chance  of  development  while 
capitalists  are  allowed  to  demand  so  ruinous  an  interest 
on  their  advances.  Who  can  doubt  therefore  but  that 
the  continuance  of  this  system  will  be  tantamount  to  a 
sentence  of  perpetual  sterility  on  the  productive  powers 
and  the  resources  of  an  empire  which,  above  all  others, 
has  been  blessed  by  nature  ?  It  is  time  that  the  Arme- 
nian incubus  should  be  shaken  off.  In  former  times 
there  might  have  been  some  excuse  for  such  a  system. 
If  the  profits  were  great,  the  risks  and  danger  were 
greater.  If  Sultan  Mahmoud,  *  of  glorious  memory,' 
occasionally  condescended  to  smile  upon  the  Dooz 
Oglous,  they  must  remember  that  he  could  also  frown. 
That  frown  was  death  1  With  the  playfulness  of  the  royal 
tiger,  have  they  forgotten  the  deadliness  of  his  spring ! 
If  so  the  tombstones  of  ^  that  ancient  and  distinguished 
family  *  will  surely  serve  to  refresh  their  memories.  It 
is  true  that  under  the  sway  of  the  present  merciful 
monarch  the  lesson  they  might  derive  from  them  has 
in  great  measure  lost  its  force.'* 

On  one  fine  morning  in  the  year  1824  Sultan  Mahmoud 
beheaded  two  and  hanged  two  other  members  of  this  great 
banking  family  of  Dooz  Oglou,  his  wrath  having  been 
kindled  against  them  not  less  by  the  intrigues  of  their 


184  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,  Chap.  XIX. 

rivals  of  the  Eutychean  Armenian  party  than  by  the 
detection  of  sundry  frauds  and  flaws  in  accounts.  Serafis 
are  neither  hanged  nor  beheaded  now-a-days  let  them  do 
what  they  will ;  but  it  is  striking  and  perhaps  comfort- 
ing to  remark  how  very  few  of  these  rapacious  men, 
who  give  their  whole  lite  and  heart  and  soul  to  money- 
getting,  acquire  large  fortunes  or  leave  them  in  the  end 
to  their  children.  Their  avarice  is  constantly  over- 
reaching itself.  After  the  Dooz  Oglous,  the  Tinghir 
Oglous,  and  the  Dadians  or  Baroutjee  Bashis,  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  are  at  this  moment  above  six  Arme- 
nian families  in  Constantinople  really  and  substantially 
wealthy.  And  the  end  of  these  men  is  not  yet.  Before 
we  left  the  East  the  Dadians  were  in  difficulties. 

^'  As  the  partridge  sitteth  on  eggs,  and  hatcheth  them 
not ;  so  he  that  getteth  riches,  and  not  by  right,  shall 
leave  them  in  the  midst  of  his  days,  and  at  his  end 
shall  be  a  fool."* 

*  Jeremiah  xvii.  11. 


Chap.  XX.  PERA— FIRES,  185 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Constantinople  —  Winter  at  Pcra  —  Fires !  —  Streets  of  Pora  and  Galata 

—  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  —  Terrible  Climate  —  Christmas  and 
Kew  Year  —  An  Eflfendi  —  Another  Fire !  —  Pera  Noises  —  Poisoning 
Dogs  —  Emeutes  de  Femmes  —  Dearth  ftf  Fnel  —  Fighting  for  Char- 
coal —  More  effects  of  the  Maximum  —  Scarcity  of  Provisions  —  Sour 
Bread  —  Dr.  Millengen  made  Baker  to  the  Sultana  Yalid^  —  The 
Cholera  and  its  ravages  —  Board  of  Health  —  Journey  to  San  Stefano 

—  Dr.  Davis  —  Comparing  Notes  —  The  Greek  Epiphany  —  Baptizing 
the  Cross  —  Go  to  Macri-keui  —  Colony  of  English  Workmen  — 
Idleness  and  Dissipation  —  Mechanics'  Institution  at  Macri-keui  — 
Preaching  —  Building  an  Iron  Steam-boat  —  Mr.  Phillips  of  Hastings 

—  Waste  of  Money  by  the  Armenians  —  French,  Belgian,  and  German 
Mechanics  —  Mining  —  Armenian  Generosity. 

I  SCARCELY  think  that  the  reader  will  have  been  dazzled 
by  the  pictures  of  greatness  exhibited  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  It  will,  however,  be  a  relief  to  me  to  proceed 
to  humbler  matters. 

We  found  Pera  still  blackened  by  the  smoke  of  the 
fire  of  September.  In  some  places  they  had  run  up 
wooden  houses  on  the  sites  of  those  which  had  been 
burned,  in  other  places  they  were  yet  building;  but 
great  gaps  remained  as  the  fire  had  left  them,  having 
here  and  there  a  brick  chimney,  or  a  fragment  of  a 
brick  wall,  left  standing.  In  the  streets  where  the 
building  was  going  on  there  was  no  passing  without 
peril  to  eyes  and  limb,  for  what  was  narrow  before  was 
made  more  narrow  with  ladders  and  scafiblding ;  and 
careless  fellows  were  carrying  planks  and  poles  on  their 
backs,  and  others  were  sawing  and  chopping  out  in  the 


186  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

street,  and  the  fellows  on  the  scaffoldings  over-head 
worked  in  so  slovenly  and  reckless  a  manner  that  some 
of  their  materials  were  frequently  falling  in  the  streets. 
Now  and  then  a  whole  scaffolding  came  down.  Long 
ago  an  imperial  ordonnance  had  been  issued  to  the 
effect  that  whenever  a  fire  gave  the  opportunity,  the 
streets  were  to  be  widened,  and  that,  as  a  means  of  pre- 
venting the  rapid  spread  of  conflagrations,  there  should 
be  a  strong  partition  wall,  built  of  brick  or  masonry, 
between  every  two  or  three  houses.  But  the  order  was 
already  a  dead  letter ;  they  were  building  exactly  where 
they  had  built  before,  and  not  one  new  partition  wall 
could  I  discover.  So  long  as  they  run  their  houses 
up  with  wood— chiefly  with  deal  planks,  which  dry  in 
the  sun  and  become  as  combustible  as  tinder — partition 
walls,  and  even  broader  streets,  will  have  little  effect  in 
checking  fire:  I  have  seen  the  flames  spread  like  an 
arch  from  one  side  of  a  broad  street  (the  only  broad 
one  in  aU  Pera  and  Galata)  to  the  other,  and  where 
they  failed  to  set  the  opposite  houses  in  a  blaze,  that 
work  was  done  by  showers  of  sparks  and  embers,  and 
fragments  of  burning  wood  wafled  by  the  strong  wind. 
But,  by  increasing  the  breadth  of  the  streets  and  letting 
in  fresh  air,  Pera  might,  no  doubt,  be  rendered  sweeter 
and  more  salubrious.  The  filth  and  the  smells  of  the 
place  were  altogether  indescribable.  The  Grande  Rue 
de  Pera,  as  it  is  ludicrously  called,  was  scarcely  pass- 
able without  mud-boots.  In  creeping  along  over  the 
rough  pavement,  close  under  the  houses  to  avoid  the 
pool  in  the  midst,  we  were  constantly  stumbling  or 
slipping.  It  was  work  to  dislocate  the  ankles.  Here 
and  there  there  were  holes  in  the  pavement  two  or 


Chap.  XX.        STBEETS  OP  PERA  AND  GALATA.  187 

three  feet  deep,  large  enough  to  admit  the  feet  even  of 
an  Armenian  hamal,  and  admirably  calculated  to  break 
legs.  At  nighty  with  the  most  careful  servant  and  the 
brightest  lantern  carried  Pera  fashion,  close  to  the 
ground,*  it  was  very  difficult  to  avoid  these  traps,  for 
they  were  filled  with  mud  and  slush,  and  the  rest  of 
the  pavement  was  under  the  same  materials  :  that  which 
had  been  blinding,  suffocating  dust  in  summer,  was  now 
mud.  I  mentioned  walking  ankle-deep  in  dust  on  the 
fashionable  promenade  ^^  Le  Petit  Champ  des  Morts  f 
that  promenade  was  now  three  feet  deep  in  mud — in 
some  places  much  deeper — and,  for  more  than  Aree 
months,  the  only  way  of  passing  along  it  was  by  clinging 
to  the  walls  of  the  houses  on  one  side,  or  to  the  iron 
railing  of  the  burying-ground  on  the  other.  And  this 
was  one  of  the  great  thoroughfares  of  Pera,  and  Frank 
merchants  and  mighty  drogomans  had  houses  abutting 
upon  it,  and  the  pleasant  prospect  and  odour  of  the 
filth  close  under  their  fi-ont  windows !  Down  in  Galata 
and  Tophana  matters  were  still  worse.  The  steep 
descent  fi-om  the  diplomatic  to  the  commercial  Christian 
suburb  was  really  perilous ;  a  part  of  it — below  the 
Galata  tower,  built  by  the  Genoese — was  down  a  flight 
of  shelving  steps,  steep,  rugged,  and  irregular,  with 

*  Before  leaving  London  we  had  been  assured  that  the  greater  part  of 
Pera,  as  well  as  of  Constantinople  Proper,  was  well  lighted  by  gas.  Except 
a  wretched  oil-lamp,  hung  out  by  a  string,  here  and  there,  in  the  grand 
street  of  Pera,  there  was  no  night-lighting  at  all.  True,  they  had  brought 
out,  at  good  salaries*  two  English  gas-fitters,  and  some  pipes  and  some  of 
the  necessary  machinery  ;  but  these  men  were  never  set  to  work,  and  the 
machinery  was  intended  wholly  and  solely  for  the  illumination  of  the 
Saltan's  new  stone  palace  on  the  Bosphorus.  One  of  the  gas-fitters  took  a 
fit  of  disgust,  and  went  home  to  England  without  getting  his  arrears  paid. 
The  other,  whom  we  left  at  Constantinople  in  July,  would  have  charge  of 
twenty-five  lamps — if  the  gasrworks  should  ever  be  set  up  at  the  palace. 


188  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

many  of  its  stones  loose  and  rolling.  In  one  respect  it 
was  the  facilis  descensus,  for  if  you  had  fallen  you  might 
have  rolled  down  from  the  Catholic  church  (where 
they  set  up  a  triumphal  arch  for  the  Pope*s  Nuncio) 
down  to  Stampa*s  shop,  which  is  not  much  above  the 
level  of  the  Golden  Horn.  To  get  at  this  queer  stair- 
case we  had  to  cross  (by  very  muddy  paths)  part  of 
the  smaller  cemetery  and  the  fosse  of  the  old  Galata 
fortifications,  wherein  there  was  an  accumulation  of  un- 
namable  filth ;  and  beyond  this  ditch  there  was  a  gate- 
way and  an  old  Circassian  gate-keeper,  who  told  for- 
Jes,  and  carried  on  .  pret^  -tive  U.  in  charm, 
and  spells :  then  you  passed  a  guard,  usually  composed 
of  raw  recruits  that  were  learning  to  shoulder  arms, 
and  below  this  Turkish  guard  you  walked  through  an 
avenue  of  blind  or  maimed  beggars,  some  being  Greeks 
and  some  Turks ;  this  avenue  led  you  to  the  Catholic 
church  before  mentioned,  where  we  never  failed  to  find 

• 

a  collection  of  dead  rats,  dead  dogs,  or  other  abomi- 
nations ;  and  immediately  beyond  this  commenced  the 
facilis  descensus  Avemi.  In  the  long-lasting  bad  weather 
it  was  almost  the  business  of  a  day  to  go  cautiously 
down  to  Galata  and  get  safely  back  to  Fera,  the  dis- 
tance either  way  being  not  above  a  mile.  The  native 
savages  managed  it  with  more  ease  than  we  could,  but 
in  spite  of  their  practice  the  man  that  went  down  in 
the  morning  never  thought  of  returning  before  evening, 
or  until  his  business  of  the  day  was  done.  Except  the 
poor  masters  of  English  vessels  who  had  business  at 
the  consulate,  and  who  were  draped  up  and  down  in 
hot  weather  and  in  cold — because  the  consular  office  is 
not  where  it  ought  to  be — ^very  few  men  made  the 


■ii^i     Ml       "I       jm       ■-!         ^mmt^^mmSfw^aHK^"^^^ 


Chap.  XX.  WINTER  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE.  189 

journey  up  and  down,  or  down  and  up,  more  than  once 
in  the  twenty-four  hours.  There  was  another  way 
down  from  Pera,  but  it  was  round-about,  and  ran 
through  some  of  the  narrowest  and  most  pestilential  of 
streets  —  streets,   moreover,   considerably   infected    by 

thieves  and  pickpockets*     Our  friend,  Dr,  L.  S , 

preferred  that  way  until  he  was  lightened  of  his  watch 
one  day,  and  exposed  to  more  serious  hazard  on  another* 
The  weather  continued  to  be  deplorable.  Heavy  rains 
and  thick,  cold  fogs !  The  atmosphere  clung  about  one 
like  a  wet  blanket  that  had  recently  been  dipped  in  iced 
water.  On  the  5th  of  January,  nearly  the  anniversary 
of  the  day  on  which  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu 
wrote,  or  on  which  she  afterwards  pretended  to  have 
written,  the  glowing  lines  about  the  gentle,  warm  winter 
at  Pera,  we  had  the  snow  lying  knee  deep,  and  as  no 
eare  was  taken  to  clear  it  away,  and  as  no  thaw  came  to 
our  relief  the  snow  was  not  much  diminished  in  depth 
for  ten  days.  When  it  began  to  melt,  the  effect  upon 
wayfarers  was  sad ;  no  boots  could  resist  the  cold  solu- 
tion under  foot,  and  over-head  the  dissolving  snow  came 
down  on  your  hat  or  cap,  and  often  found  its  way 
between  the  collar  of  your  coat  and  your  shirt.  Here 
no  man  thinks  of  sweeping  the  snow  from  his  housetop, 
and  there  are  hardly  any  pipes  or  spouts  to  carry  either 
rain  or  snow  irom  ±e  tUes  to  the  street  Several  times 
we  were  nearly  knocked  over  by  great  lumps  of  dis- 
solving snow,  which  fell  from  the  eaves  upon  our  heads. 
When  all  this  snow  melted  and  ran  off  towards  the  Port 
the  effect  was  most  miserable,  for  the  melting  ran  like 
a  mill-stream  under  foot,  and  the  liquids  came  down 
from  the  housetops  like  miniature  cataracts — and  right 


190  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Ciiap.  XX. 

upon  you ;  the  streets  being  far  too  narrow  to  allow  of 
escape  by  running  into  tbe  middle  of  them. 

'*  Here  summer  reigns  with  one  eternal  smile  !'* 

Fie  I  Lady  Mary  I  Fibs  I  The  climate  of  this  place  was 
in  your  time  what  it  now  is,  and  what  it  ever  has  been. 
You  may  have  had  one  bright,  sunny  day  up  in  Fera  on 
the  26th  of  December  (Old  Style),  1718,  but  you  could 
not  have  had  a  succession  of  such  days  any  time  from 
the  begmning  of  November  to  the  beginning  of  April; 
and  for  weeks  together  you  must  have  been  as  cold  and 
shivering  as  your  frail  and  sensitive  poetical  corre^ 
spondent  at  Twickenham,  without  having,  even  in  the 
Ambassadorial  Falace,  one-half  of  his  comforts.  The 
winter  of  1847-8  was  rather  longer  and  more  severe 
than  usual ;  but  a  winter  at  Constantinople,  exposed  to 
the  storms  of  the  Euxine,  has  always  been  a  season  to 
be  dreaded.  Two  lines  in  Ovid  give  a  far  more  cor- 
rect notion  of  it  than  the  verses  of  my  Lady  Mary, 
/found  the  place  as  inhospitable  {a^evoi)  as  it  was  cold — 

«<  Frigida  me  oohibent  Euxini  littora  Ponti, 
Dictus  ab  antiquia  Axenus  ille  fuit." 

Having  to  move  about  a  good  deal,  and  not  having 
within  doors  a  single  comfort,  it  will  easily  be  imagined 
that  our  sufferings  and  vexations  were  not  trifling. 
That  odious  Dutch  stove  could  not  be  lighted  in  our 
room  without  the  certainty  of  a  headache.  On  the 
coldest  days  we  were  obliged  to  take  refuge  under 
cotton  quilts  and  bed-covering.  The  first  winter  our 
witty  friend  T  spent  at  this  city  he  received,  on 

Christmas-day,  a  letter  from  some  relations  in  England, 
who  sent  him  the  wishes  of  the  season,  and  envied  him 
the  pleasure  of  passing  it  in  a  warm  and  sunny  climate. 


Chap.  XX.  CHRISTMAS  AND  NEW  YEAR.  191 

"  And  here   was  I,"    said  T ,    "  in  a  wretched 

wooden  house,  sitting  with  two  great  coats  drawn  one 
over  the  other,  and  two  pair  of  cloth  pantaloons, 
bending  over  a  pan  of  charcoal,  and  shivering  with 
cold;  and  there  was  deep  snow  in  the  streets  and 
a  fog  from  the  Black  Sea  as  thick  as  a  London 
fog!"  His  friends  had  probably  been  reading  Lady 
Mary  W.  Montagu ;  or  perhaps  they  merely  bore  in 
mind  the  latitude  of  the  .place,  and  had  never  given 
attention  to  the  other  physical  circumstances  which 
affect  climate. 

Our  Christmas  and  New  Year  were  perfect  in  their 
wretchedness  —  cold,  damp,  foggy,  and  most  noisy. 
Greeks  went  about  the  streets  fiddling  and  singing 
the  vilest  ditties  we  ever  heard.  They  did  this  to 
collect  money  from  the  Franks;  and  as  they  adhere 
to  the  O.  S.  and  keep  these  festivals  twelve  days 
afler  us,  we  had  a  repetition  of  the  noises  when  their 
Christmas  and  New  Year  arrived,  and  when  they 
played  and  sang  on  their  own  account.  It  was  fearful 
to  hear  them  I  Their  singing  was  like  yawning  set 
to  music.  A  numerous  band  used  to  choose  our 
dinner  hour  for  their  performance,  and  posting  them- 
selves close  under  our  windows  they  fiddled  and  sang 
all  the  time  we  were  at  table.  On  Christmas-day  we 
had  an  escape  from  this  martyrdom  of  the  ears,  for  we 

dined  down  in  Galata  with  our  friends  J.  R and 

E.  G ^  with  a  party  of  Englishmen  which  included 

one  very  joyous  Turkish  Effendi,  who  drank  half  a 
bottle  of  rum  before  dinner,  considerably  more  than  a 
bottle  of  champagne  during  dinner,  and  the  rest  of  the 
bottle  of  rum  with  the  dessert    He  frankly  told  us 


-^^^w^?*»s--*»^.*«w^ai51f|P|!P"w^-«flpf^^ 


itm  inm  I— i«^»^piw^.^»i 


192  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

that  he  was  a  Bektash,  and  had  no  religious  scruples 
whatsoever.  After  dinner,  when  we  as  good  English- 
men and  in  duty  bound  stood  up,  glass  in  hand,  to 
drink  health  to  Queen  Victoria,  he  stood  up  with  us 
and  hipped  and  cheered  with  the  best  of  us ;  and  when 
that  toast  was  drunk  he  filled  a  goblet  to  the  brim  with 
strong  Fort  wine,  proposed  the  health  of  his  Padishah 
Abdul  Medjid,  and  emptied  his  goblet  before  he  re- 
sumed his  seat.  At  a  late  hour,  when  the  amusements 
began  to  flag,  we  had  the  spectacle  of  a  grand  confla- 
gration, on  our  side  of  the  water,  at  Beshiktash,  near 
the  Sultan's  palace.  We  sat  at  the  windows  and  en- 
joyed the  sight,  as  people  always  do  in  this  country  if 
the  fire  be  not  in  their  own  quarter. 

We  had  this  amusement  frequently ;  a  week  never 
passed  without  a  fire  down  at  Tophana,  or  at  some  village 
up  the  Bosphorus,  or  over  in  Constantinople  city,  or  across 
the  strait  in  the  Asiatic  suburb  of  Scutari.  At  Tonco's 
the  breaking  out  of  a  fire  was  always  announced  to  us 
with  great  glee,  as  something  to  enliven  the  evening  or 
night ;  and  heaven  knows  how  many  houses  we  must 
have  seen  consumed  from  a  look-out  at  the  top  of  that 
dwelling,  even  before  the  dread  Fire  King  came  to 
Fera  (in  the  month  of  June)  and  left  a  great  part  of 
it  cinders  and  ashes.  When  the  conflagration  is  at  all 
considerable  the  great  Fashas  and  Ministers  of  State 
turn  out  to  it,  to  superintend  operations,  and  to  give 
their  directions  or  misdirections.  One  morning  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Afiairs  was  not  to  be  seen,  because 
he  had  been  up  all  night  at  a  fire.  Only  imagine  Viscount 
Falmerston  thus  engaged  as  a  matter  of  oflScial  duty ! 
Our  noble  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  has  lighted  a 


Chap.  XX.  EMEUTE  DE  FEMMES.  193 

good  many  fires  in  Christendom :  I  wish  he  could  be 
sent  among  the  Turks  to  help  to  extinguish  a  few. 

The  noises  in  our  quarter  of  Pera  were  as  distressing 
as  in  the  summer  time.  We  had  the  same  incessant 
cries,  and  bawling,  and  squabbling  in  the  streets  and  on 
the  binrying-ground  by  day,  and  the  same  yelping,  yell- 
ing, and  howling  of  unowned  dogs  by  night.  Indeed, 
the  canine  colony  in  our  corner  of  the  Turkish  cemetery 
had  considerably  increased  since  the  month  of  August ; 
and  about  a  dozen  litters  of  pups  were  now  boarding 
and  lodging  among  the  turbaned  stones  just  under  the 
windows  of  our  sitting-room.  Wearied  and  worn  out 
by  having  sleep  murdered  by  dogs  and  pups,  our  very 

chemical  friend.  Dr.  L.  S ,  resolved  to  murder  some 

of  them  outright.  By  an  ingenious  distribution  by 
night  of  strichnine,  he  reduced  the  number  by  about  a 
dozen.  But  what  was  that  among  so  many?  Then 
the  dead  beasts  were  left  to  decompose  close  under  our 
noses ;  and  then  the  Turks,  dwelling  a  little  below  us  on 
the  cemetery,  began  to  grumble  and  curse  at  the  Christian 
dogs  for  their  barbarity.  The  American  Doctor  was 
advised  to  desist.  He,  however,  consoled  himself  by 
believing  that  his  strichnine  had  silenced  some  of  the 
biggest  and  loudest  of  our  Lemures ;  and  I  also  fancied 
that  I  missed  some  ^^  sweet  voices "  in  the  nightly 
chorus. 

It  was  not  about  dogs  or  strichnine,  but  we  had  one 
day  a  terrible  fracas  at  our  corner.  The  part  of  our 
ground-floor  which  faced  to  the  burying-ground,  and 
looked  towards  the  teke  of  the  Dancing  Dervishes,  was 
occupied  by  M.  Wick,  a  Swiss  l^ookseller,  a  quiet  and 
very  respectable  man,  although  he  did  sell  his  French 

VOLm  II.  -  o 


194  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DBSTINT.  Chap.  XX. 

books  at  enormous  prices.*  A  drain  or  sewer,  which 
passed  under  the  house,  instead  of  performing  its  office, 
had  taken  to  depositing  its  filth  in  the  bookseller  s  store- 
room, which  was  immediately  underneath  our  sitting- 
room — and  hence  some  of  the  odours  with  which  we 
were  infected.  As  his  property  was  in  danger,  Mon-  * 
sieur  W.  resolved  to  get  the  drain  mended.  He  ap- 
plied to  the  Turkish  police  for  the  indispensable  permis- 
sion, and  obtained  it,  though  not  quite  ^^  free,  gratis,  for 
nothing."  One  morning  he  proceeded  to  operations: 
two  Turkish  labourers  and  two  Greek  masons  soon  dug 
a  broad,  deep  hole  out  in  the  street,  and  got  to  the  level 
of  the  sewer,  a  Turkish  cavass  or  policeman  being  on 
the  spot,  and  presiding  over  the  interesting  labours. 
Some  Turkish  women,  living  on  the  slope  of  the  hill, 
near  the  lower  end  of  this  immense  burying-ground, 
called  ^^  The  Little,"  got  scent  of  what  was  going  on  up 
above,  and  arming  themselves  with  sticks  and  stones, 
they  trooped  up  to  the  spot,  yelling  and  making  use  of 
language  fouler  than  the  sewer.  They  said  that  the 
accursed  ghiaours  were  going  to  empty  their  filth  into 
the  water-courses  of  the  faithful — to  contaminate  and 
poison  all  the  fountains  of  the  true  believers  who  lived 
down  the  hill.  In  vain  were  they  told  that  the  sewer 
had  no  communication  with  any  water-course  whatsoever. 
They  rushed  like  furies  into  Wick's  shop,  threatening 
the  unlucky  bookseller,  and  made  him  run  away  and 
hide  him  J,  Ihey  fell  upon  the  p««di.g  cvj wiU. 

*  Onoe,  when  I  remoiutrated  with  him  about  his  prioes,  he  said,  **  If  I 
di<1  not  put  high  prioes  on  my  books  I  could  not  live.  I  sell  so  very  few. 
Did  you  ever  see  a  Perote  reading  ?  They  care  nothing  for  books  in  this 
country.  I  live  chiefly  on  travellen  like  yourself.  If  mote  do  not  oome, 
I  must  go." 


Chap.  XX.  THE  AFFAIRE  WICK.  195 

Iheit  tongued  and  sticks^  and  he  ran  away;  they 
thrashed  and  pelted  die  two  Turkish  labourers,  and  the 
two  Greek  tnasons,  and  they  ran  away.  There  was 
then  a  suspension  of  hostilities  and  a  retreat,  but  the 
MegSBras  only  went  down  to  Kassim  Pasha  and  the 
otiier  abominable  purlieus  of  the  Bagnio  to  bring  up 
reinforcements.  We  had  been  out  visiting  the  dis- 
graceful British  hospital,  and  were  returning  home  and 
were  near  our  own  door,  just  as  they  returned  to  the 
burying^ground  and  the  causa  beUi,  the  big  hole.  It 
was  the  26th  of  March  of  that  luckless  year  1848 ;  and 
we  had  had  for  twelve  days  the  news  of  the  February 
revolution  of  Paris,  and  all  the  people  we  met  were 
talking  and  dreaming  of  nothing  but  revolutions  and 
changes  very  perplexing  to  monarchs,  and  many  pseudo- 
Frendimen  and  a  great  many  real  Italians  were  in  an 
ecstasy  of  delight,  and  incessantly  predicting  that  revo- 
lutionism and  republicanism  were  now  most  assuredly 
going  to  make,  hpas  de  charge^  le  tour  du  monde !  At 
the  first  glance  I  really  thought  that  revolution  had 
come  to  Constantinople,  for  the  Turks,  when  disposed 
for  mischief,  always  put  their  women  in  the  van.  Verily 
revolution  and  democracy  were  fitly  represented  by 
these  she-devils.  They  crowded  the  narrow  street,  they 
covered  the  edge  of  the  cemetery,  which  is  there  an 
elevated  ridge  with  a  street  and  a  road  running  beneath 
it)  and  they  stood  up  among  the  tombstones  gaunt  and 
ragged  like  spectres  that  had  started  out  of  the  graves, 
and,  against  all  theory  and  law  of  ghosts,  had  made 
themselves  visible  by  broad  daylight.  There  were  at 
least  twenty  Meg  Merrilies  among  them.  Wild  were 
their  gesticulations,  most  obscene  and  beastly  was  their 

o2 


[ 


196  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

language.     In  their  excitement  they  let  their  yashmacs 

or  handkerchiefs  fall  from  their  faces.     Some  of  them 

were  young,   and  had   infants   in  their  arms.     After 

watching  them  for  a  time  in  the  street  we  went  up  stairs, 

and  watched  them  from  our  windows,  expecting  that 

some  police   force   would   arrive   and  disperse    them. 

They  screamed,  shrieked,   and  hooted;   they  capered 

among  the  tombstones  and  the  cypresses ;  they  became 

more  and  more  furious ;  they  threatened  to  break  our 

windows;   they  threatened  to  do  impossible  things  to 

our  mothers  and  grandmothers,  our  wives  and  sisters ; 

they  would  put  us  into  the  bole  if  we  did  not  instantly 

fill  it  up.     Such  a  continuous  stream  of  abuse  and  of 

obscenity,  with  action  suited  to  the  words,  I  had  not 

yet  witnessed.     And  there  was  a  large  guard-house 

filled  with  Turkish  soldiers  close  at  hand,  at  the  distance 

of  only  a  few  yards ;  and  all  the  while  a  Turkish  officer 

of  that  guard,  instead  of  putting  down  this  revolt  of 

women,  instead  of  checking  their  torrent  of  insult  and 

beastliness,  encours^ed  them  by  standing  among  them 

and  laughing  very  heartily  in  our  faces.     Also  a  black 

officer,  a  hideous-looking  Nubian,  came  up  from  the 

same  guard-house  and  joined  in  the  sport.     The  guard 

had  not  been  changed  for  months :  those  officers  knew 

right  well  that  there  were  Englishmen  and  other  Frank 

travellers  living  in  this  house ;  they  well  knew  us  all  by 

sight,  and  so  did  every  one  of  their  men,  as  we  were 

constantly  passing  and  re-passing  their  quarters;  and 

they  could  not  but  know  the  ordonnances  which  so 

strictly  forbade  the  use  of  opprobrious  language  towards 

Franks  or  any  other  Christians ;  yet  there  they  stood 

approving  it,  and  heard  us  called  ghiaours,  Jcupeks^ 


Chap.  XX  SCAEdTY  OF  CHARCOAL.  197 

pezavmkSy  and  much  worsb  They  were  officers  of  the 
Imperial  Gruardl  The  Megasras  gained  a  complete 
victory :  a  man  from  the  Turkish  police-office  solemnly 
told  them  that  the  hole  should  be  filled  up,  that  the 
sewer  should  not  be  touched ;  and  thereupon  they  took 
their  departure,  waving  their  bare  arms  in  the  air, 
shouting  and  screaming,  and  giving  us  more  dirt  to  eat. 
The  hole  was  closed  while  we  were  at  dinner.  How 
the  poor  Swiss  engineered  to  save  his  books  I  know 
not ;  but  I  do  know  that  from  this  day  the  atmosphere 
of  our  dwelling  was  fouler  than  before.  No  notice  was 
taken  of  the  disgraceful  scene  we  had  witnessed,  or  of 
the  insults  to  which  we  had  been  exposed.  Lord  Cowley 
had  gone,  and  Sir  Stratford  Canning  had  not  yet  come; 
the  other  foreign  Legations  had  too  many  Revolutions 
in  their  heads  to  be  able  to  bestow  a  thought  on  this 
Smeute  de  femmes.  While  the  subject  was  fresh  in  our 
minds  a  good  many  stories  were  told  of  recent  female 
rebellions. 

Previously  to  the  affaire  Wick  we  ourselves  witnessed 
a  female  commotion ;  but  in  the  beginning  it  was  not 
more  than  what  is  technically  called  a  demonstration, 
and  at  the  end  it  hardly  amounted  to  an  emeute.  We 
had  not  been  back  in  Pera  much  more  than  a  week 
when  we  found  that  there  was  a  dearth  of  charcoal. 
All  cooking  operations  are  performed  by  means  of 
charcoal ;  no  fuel  is  consumed  in  kitchens  except  char- 
coal ;  and  even  in  civilized  Pera  very  few  houses  could 
be  warmed  except  by  the  mangals  or  pans  of  charcoal ; 
while  in  the  Turkish,  Greek,  Armenian,  and  Jewish 
quarters,  both  on  this  side  and  over  at  Constantinople 
and  at  Scutari,  and  all  the  way  up  the  Bosphorus, 


198  TURKEY  AND  ITa  DESTINY.  Chap,  XX. 

charcoal  was  the  only  fuel  that  could  be  used  either  for 
cooking  or  warming.  An  immense  quantity  had  been 
consumed  at  the  circumcision  fS^tes ;  an  unusual  con-* 
sumption  had  taken  place  through  the  early  beginning 
and  the  great  severity  of  the  winter ;  and  that  which 
had  tended  in  a  far  greater  measure  to  our  present 
scarcity  was  the  fixing,  more  than  a  year  ago,  a  very 
low  maximum  price  —  a  price  so  low  that  many  of 
the  woodcutters  and  charcoal-burners  had  given  up 
the  business  as  unprofitable.  At  short  distances  from 
Constantinople  ther^  was  wood  and  forest  enough  to 
make  charcoal  for  the  whole  of  the  charcoal-burning 
portion  of  Europe ;  but  it  could  not  be  made  in  wet 
and  snowy  weather;  from  many  of  these  places  it 
could  not  have  been  brought  without  a  dreadful  ex- 
pense for  carriage ;  and  then  these  nearest  places  did 
not  enjoy  the  right  of  making  charcoal  at  all,  and  no 
man  in  them  could  have  thought  previously  of  making 
it  for  the  fixed  prices,  even  if  he  had  had  the  necessary 
licence.  The  article  rose  to  a  terrible  price  in  Pera 
and  also  over  in  Constantinople  Proper :  the  crescendo 
movement  continued  until  the  price  of  charcoal  per 
oke  was  nearly  as  dear  as  the  bread  we  ate,  and  con- 
siderably dearer  than  the  common  bread;  and  until 
charcoal  was  not  to  be  obtained  for  any  price.  In  the 
streets  of  Pera  and  Galata  people  went  about  from 
house  to  house  begging  for  a  little  or  offering  extrava- 
gant prices  for  a  little.  Tonco  was  reduced  to  his  last 
handful,  which  was  not  enough  to  cook  the  dinner  for 
the  day.  "You  can  serve  me  in  this  emergency," 
said  he ;  "  you  know  Ali  Pasha,  the  Minister  for  Fo- 
reign Affairs;  if  you  speak  to  him,  he  will  send  us  one 


n 


CfiAP.  XX.  DISTBIBUTION  OF  CHARCOAL.  199 

of  his  cavassesy  and  with  the  aid  of  a  Turk  I  shall  be 
able  to  find  charcoal  somewhere."  After  laughing  at 
the  idea  of  applying  to  a  Minister  of  State  on  such  a 
subject},  I  declined  the  embassy;  but  as  a  young 
Englishman  in  Ali  Pasha*s  service  came  over  to  see 
U8^  Tonco  spoke  to  him,  telling  him  of  course  there 
would  be  a  backshish  for  the  cavass.  The  young  man 
assured  him  that  his  Excellency  the  Minister  for  Fo- 
reign Affiiirs  was  as  badly  off  for  charcoal  as  we  could 
be ;  that  for  three  days  his  cayasses  had  been  hunting 
about  Constantinople  for  that  foel;  that  yesterday 
there  was  not  enough  in  the  house  to  light  his  Excel- 
lency's mangal,  and  that  his  dinner  had  been  cooked  at 
a  fire  made  of  sticks  and  brush-wood.  As  this  dearth 
happened  when  the  weather  was  coldest,  the  poor  people 
suffered  exceedingly.  The  day  on  which  the  delibera- 
tions took  place  up  at  Pera  it  was  sleeting,  snowing, 
and  blowing  as  in  Siberia.  Wood  was  scarce,  and  pre- 
sently became  enormously  dear.  The  Turkish  women 
over  in  Constantinople  collected  in  great  numbers^  way- 
laid the  Sultan  as  he  was  going  to  mosque,^  and  told 
the  representative  of  the  Prophet  that  they  and  their 
i^ildren  were  perishing  for  want  of  charcoal. 

At  last,  on  the  7th  of  February,  three  steamboats 
were  taken  off  other  duty  and  sent  down  the  Sea  of 
Marmora  and  across  to  Asia  to  tow  to  the  Grolden 
Horn  a  few  charcoal-boats  that  were  detained  by  con- 
trary winds.  On  the  followmg  day,  as  I  was  crossing 
the  New  Bridge,  I  saw  an  immense  crowd  at  the  Con- 
stantino]de  end  of  it,  and  heard  a  terrible  shouting  and 
screaming.  It  was  all  about  charcoal.  Three  small 
undecked  vessels  laden  with  the  precious  commodity 


200  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

had  just  arrived,  and  Turkish  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren were  scrambling  and  fighting  for  the  fuel,  while 
poor  Armenians,  Greeks,  and  Jews  were  looking  on 
with  envious  eyes,  not  daring  to  join  in  the  scramble. 
Even  the  women  were  rushing  into  the  cold  water  in 
their  exceeding  great  eagerness.  It  was  to  be  noted, 
however,  that  no  woman  or  man  in  this  scramble  was 
allowed  to  get  more  than  a  very  small  quantity.  A 
Jew,  standing  shivering  at  our  side,  looked  at  the 
charcoal  just  as  a  poor  glutton  in  London  streets  might 
look  at  the  viands  of  a  cook-shop.  "  The  Turks  will 
get  all  the  charcoal,"  said  he,  "  and  not  a  morsel  for  us 
Israelites!"  I  told  him  that  there  was  Tanzimaut 
establishing  an  equality  of  rights,  and  that  he  had  as 
much  right  to  go  with  his  paras  and  get  some  of  the 
fuel  as  the  Turks  could  have.  "  Misericordia !"  said 
the  Jew :  "  I  should  get  beaten  and  have  my  clothes 
torn  off  my  back  if  I  were  to  go  among  those  Mussul- 
mans !  Tanzimaut  says  one  thing  and  Turks  do 
another.  What  is  Tanzimaut?  Dirt!"  In  a  house 
close  at  hand,  in  a  wooden  gallery  overhanging  the 
port,  sat  that  very  great  man  Izzet  Pasha,  the  con- 
troller of  droits  riunis^  who  was  charged  with  regulating 
the  supplies  and  fixing  the  prices  of  wood,  charcoal,  &c. 
He  watched  the  proceedings  with  an  air  of  great  dig- 
nity, smoking  his  tchibouque  and  giving  his  orders  to 
a  whole  host  of  cavasses,  who  would  allow  nobody  to 
carry  away  more  than  a  very  small  basketful.  Other 
boats  came  in,  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  but  the  sup- 
plies were  altogether  inadequate  to  the  demand,  and 
in  our  quarter  charcoal  rose  to  2  piastres  the  oke. 
There  was  a  scarcity  all  through  the  winter,  and  indeed 


Chap.  XX.  PRICE  OF  CHARCOAL.  201 

till  the  month  of  May,  when  the  horrible  roads  or 
tracks  of  the  country  became  passable.  Over  at  Brusa 
there  was  an  abundance ;  but  how  could  it  be  carried 
down  to  the  coast  ?  Still  nearer,  in  the  thickly  wooded 
country  behind  Selyvria,  between  the  Propontis  and  the 
Euxine,  there  was  or  there  might  have  been  an  im- 
mense quantity  of  charcoal;  but  then  there  was  the 
same  difficulty  of  conveyance,  and  the  arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings of  government  and  their  insane  maximum  had 
discouraged  and  checked  production.  At  Kirk  Klissia, 
or  the  Forty  Churches,  in  the  midst  of  those  woodlands, 
there  were  many  Turkish  charcoal-burners,  and  a 
numerous  and  industrious  Greek  population,  who  had 
been  accustomed  to  traffic  a  good  deal  with  the  port  of 
Selyvria  on  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  Selyvria  alone  might 
have  been  made  a  depot  for  the  capital,  from  which  it 
is  distant  only  some  thirty-six  miles,  or  a  common 
voyage  by  sea  with  the  country  vessels  of  some  seven 
hours.  A  carro  or  arvba  load  of  charcoal  weighs  300 
okes.  For  this  quantity  government  last  year  had 
arbitrarily  fixed  the  price  at  only  40  piastres  for  the 
market,  taking  all  that  it  wanted  for  its  own  use  at 
36  piastres.  Now,  the  poor  people  paid  a  rent  to 
government  for  the  privilege  of  cutting  the  wood  in  the 
forests ;  then  they  had  the  labour  of  converting  the 
wood  into  charcoal,  and  then  the  toil  and  expense  of  a 
journey  of  two  or  three  days,  over  the  worst  of  roads, 
with  a  pair  of  oxen,  to  Selyvria.  How  then  could  they 
make  any  profit  or  live  by  such  industry  ?  In  many 
instances  that  which  was  taken  for  the  use  of  govern- 
ment was  not  paid  for  at  all,  or  such  deductions  were 
made  by  the  difierent  men  in  authority  concerned  in 


202  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

the  transaction,  that  the  poor  men,  instead  of  getting 
36  piastres,  did  not  receive  16;  consequently  the  trade 
had  been  in  good  part  abandoned :  the  same  effect  had 
been  produced  by  the  same  measures  in  otiier  places.. 

But  for  the  unusual  abundance  of  game,  we  should 
have  been  as  badly  off  for  food  as  for  fael.  Beef  was 
rarely  to  be  procured  at  all,  and  mutt(»i  rose  to  a 
price  that  was  quite  fearful  to  the  poor.  In  January 
and  February,  this  meat,  of  the  very  worst  quality,  was 
nearly  as  dear  as  our  very  best  mutton  in  London.  It 
was  four  times  the  price  at  which  it  used  to  be  sold  in 
1 828 ;  but,  since  my  former  residence,  nearly  every 
commodity  or  necessary  of  life  had  risen  in  price  in 
about  the  same  proportion.  Such  beef  as  we  got  was 
black  and  otherwise  indescribable.  The  mutton,  when 
raw,  looked  as  if  it  had  been  cut  or  hacked  from  ani- 
mals that  had  perished  of  disease  or  famine,  and  when 
cooked  it  was  tough,  coarse,  stringy,  and  flavourless. 
The  severe  cold  wa&  at  once  a  friend  and  an  enemy,  for 
it  brought  down  an  immense  quantity  of  game,  and 
especially  of  woodcocks  and  wild  ducks.  During  three 
months  our  priiH^ipal  food  was  woodcock;  pheasants, 
however,  occasionally  appeared  upon  table,  and  par- 
tridges rather  frequently.  But  for  the  diabolical 
cookery  of  the  place  we  should  not  have  fared  so  very 
ill;  but  Tonco's  cook,  a  dirty,  obstinate,  pig-headed 
Armenian  from  Diarbekir,  would  send  every  dish  up 
swimming  in  that  rancid,  foul  cart-crease  which  goes 
by  the  name  of  Odessa  butter.  Our  bread  was  always 
sour  and  frequently  very  gritty :  it  is  made  with  leaven 
which  turns  acid  upon  the  stomach:  when  two  days 
old  it  is  so  sour  as  not  to  be  eatable.     Some  of  the 


Ferote  fiunilies  made  better  bresd  ia  dieir  own  houses^ 
but  the  bakos  form  a  powerful  esaaad^  and  their  c<n^ 
porate  privileges  and  the  right  of  pcnonii^  people  are 
not  to  be  interfered  with.  Many  times  representations 
had  been  made  by  medical  men  and  other  Europeans 
that  sour  leaven  is  a  bad  compound,  very  injurious  to 
persons  in  delicate  health,  and  that  they  would  make 
far  better  bread  if  they  would  only  use  yeast,  of  which 
there  was  a  plenty  in  the  country.  But  this  was  con- 
trary  to  their  itOigion  or  to  custom,  which  is  now  about 
the  only  religion  left  among  them;  Mussulmans  had 
always  made  their  bread  with  leaven,  and  ought  always 
so  to  make  it ;  it  was  their  adet :  in  Frankistan  thev 
made  their  bread  with  yeast,  that  was  their  adet ;  but 
could  the  Franks  pretend  that  Mussulmans  were  to 
make  bread  after  their  fashion?  By  reasoning  like 
this  Dr.  Millengen,  physician  to  the  Sultana  Yalid^, 
had  often  been  defeated,  not  merely  in. this,  but  in  his 
efibrts  at  still  more  important  improvements.  This 
winter,  however,  that  high  and  mighty  dame,  who 
ab  origine  was  a  bought  Circassian  slave,  had  a  long, 
and  alarming,  and  all  but  fatal  sickness.  In  her  con- 
valesceuce  her  stomach  rejected  nearly  all  food.  Seizing 
the  favourable  opportunity.  Dr.  Millengen  recommended 
light,  sweet  bread  made  with  yeast  Long  and  solemn 
deliberations  were  held ;  astrologers  were  consulted ; 
but  it  was  finally  agreed  that  the  Doctor  should  himself 
and  with  his  own  hands  make  and  compound  some  of 
his  Frank  bread  with  flour  furnished  to  him  out  of  the 
Sultana  Valide's  own  stores.*     The  loaves  were  pre- 

*  Nothing  can  pass  through  the  hands  of  Turkish  placcuion  or  courtiors 
without  plunder.    A  certain  quantity  of  flour  was  named  to  the  Doctor, 


204  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

sendy  made ;  the  Doctor  ate  of  them  in  the  presence 
of  the  Sultana's  eunuchs  and  chiefs  of  her  household, 
to  show  that  there  was  no  poison  in  them.  The  chief 
eunuch  and  chamberlain  also  ate  and  pronounced  the 
bread  to  be  good,  and  after  some  other  exorcisms  or 
ceremonies,  a  fine  white  slice  was  presented  to  the 
Sultana,  who  ate  and  declared  it  to  be  most  excellent. 
The  bread  sat  lightly  on  her  stomach  and  without  any 
acidity.  Dr.  Millengen  was  extolled  to  the  skies,  and 
by  imperial  rescript,  pompously  announced  in  the  Sul- 
tan's own  newspapers,  he  was  authorized  to  have  ovens 
of  his  own,  and  to  sell  bread  made  in  his  own  fashion, 
without  regard  to  the  esnaff.  The  Doctor  took  pre- 
mises in  Pera,  not  far  from  the  medical  school  at  Ga- 
lata  Serai,  put  into  them  some  intelligent  Greeks,  and 
left  them  to  make  the  bread  with  yeast,  and  to  sell  it. 
It  was  the  best  bread  in  Turkey.  I  believe  his  bake- 
house was  burned  down  in  the  great  fire  of  June  (of 
which  more  hereafter),  but  he  was  free  to  build  another; 
and  when  we  left;,  in  July,  Dr.  Millengen  was,  or  had 
the  right  of  being,  Head  Baker  to  the  Sultana  Valide, 
as  well  as  Hekim  Bashi  to  her  Highness. 

The  cholera  did  not  grow  better.     It  was  far  worse 


with  which  he  was  to  make  a  given  number  of  loaves ;  but  before  the 
Sultana  Valid^'s  flour  reached  his  hands  it  was  reduced  by  one-third. 

In  the  same  way,  of  rations  for  three  horses  allowed  him  by  the  Validd, 
the  Doctor  never  got  more  than  two.  On  the  recovery  of  that  august 
personage,  her  son,  the  grateful  Sultan,  ordered  the  Doctor  a  present  of 
100,000  piastres,  but  the  sum  paid  to  Dr.  Millengen  was  70,000  piastres. 
The  rest  of  the  money  had  stuck  by  the  way  in  the  hands  of  the  chamber- 
lains, &c. 

Dr.  Millengen  was  a  great  favourite  at  court,  a  perfect  master  of  the 
Turkish  language,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  tricks  of  the  country. 
Other  men  faro^l  far  worse  than  ho. 


Chap.  XX.  THE  CHOLERA  IN  PERA.  205 

about  the  middle  of  January  than  when  we  arrived  on 
the  23rd  of  December.  The  cold  did  not  stop  it,  nor 
did  the  heat  of  summer  afterwards.  As  well  as  I  could 
judge,  it  was  a  malady  altogether  independent  of  tem- 
perature. It  was  very  destructive  in  January,  and  very 
destructive  in  July ;  but  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  it 
was  rather  worse  in  the  hot  months  (on  account  of  the 
enormous  quantity  of  big  raw  cucumbers  consumed  by 
the  common  people,  without  vinegar,  oil,  salt,  or  any 
condiment  whatsoever)  than'  in  the  winter  months. 
Long  before  the  terrible  disease  began  to  kill  Franks, 
I  was  made  aware  that  it  was  committing  ravages.  My 
inquiries  carried  me  down  rather  frequently  to  Kassim 
Pasha,  the  Arsenal,  and  the  foul  regions  that  surround 
it  I  hardly  ever  went  without  meeting  hurried  Turkish 
ftmerals,  or  hearing  some  story  of  disease  and  death. 
The  lower  part  of  the  cemetery  was  beginning  to  look 
like  a  ploughed  field,  so  numerous  were  the  recent 
graves.  Attempts  were  made  to  conceal  the  truth. 
Two  or  three  of  the  pashas  employed  in  the  Arsenal 
affected  to  treat  the  visitation  as  a  trifle,  and  even 
denied  that  the  deaths  were  nimierous  in  that  unhealthy 
hollow ;  but  I  learned  upon  better  authority  that  the 
hospital  was  crowded,  that  ever  since  the  month  of  Oc^ 
tober  the  deaths  had  been  very  frequent,  and  that  a 
great  number  of  the  soldiers  and  marines  quartered 
in  the  Arsenal  barracks,  and  of  young  men  dragged  over 
from  Asia  to  be  trained  as  sailors  for  the  Sultan's  fleet, 
had  perished,  and  were  yet  perishing.  These  victims 
were  mostly  buried  between  night  and  morning,  when 
nobody  was  stirring.  There  was  no  doubt  now  of  its 
being  the  real  Asiatic  spasmodic  cholera ;  but  it  did  not 


206  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

rage  fiercely  for  a  season  and  depart,  as  it  has  generally 
done  in  India.  It  lingered  about  the  city  and  suburbs 
many  months,  Keing  now  active  in  one  quarter  and  now  in 
another,  and  often  returning  to  the  quarter  which  it  had 
seemed  to  have  deserted.  When  its  fury  abated  in  the 
Arsenal  and  the  suburbs  lying  along  the  left  bank  of  the 
Golden  Horn,  it  raged  terribly  over  in  Constantinople, 
in  the  Greek  quarter  of  Fsammattia,  on  the  shore  of  the 
Propontis,  near  the  Seven  Towers,  at  the  distance  of 
nearly  four  miles  from  thC  Arsenal.  From  Psammattia 
the  disease  took  a  leap  across  a  ridge  of  hills,  and  fell 
upon  the  quarter  of  the  poor  Jews ;  but  when  the  Greeks 
of  Psammattia  were  flattering  themselves  with  the  hope 
that  the  cholera  had  left  them  for  good,  the  monster 
was  back  again  among  them.  There  were  intervals 
when  one  might  really  have  believed  at  Pera  and  Galata 
that  the  disorder  had  ceased ;  but  as  we  moved  about  a 
good  deal  in  other  parts,  we  were  convinced  that  it  was 
actively  at  work,  and  thinning  the  poor  ill-fed  popu- 
lation at  a  fearfiil  rate.  Where  medicines  were  admi- 
nistered in  time  by  skilful  Frank  doctors,  there  were 
many  recoveries;  but  no  medical  assistance  was  pro- 
vided for  the  poor.  The  mendacious  newspapers  pro- 
claimed to  the  world  that  a  paternal  care  was  taken  of 
all  classes;  that  government  was  imremitting  in  its  efforts 
to  succour  the  afflicted  and  check  the  disease ;  and  that 
the  enlightened  Board  of  Health  met  in  frequent  con- 
sultation, and  daily  displayed  the  greatest  zeal,  activity, 
and  skill.  That  enlightened  Board  was  presided  over 
by  a  young  renegade  Greek.  I  believe  the  "  Board  "  did 
assemble  some  two  or  three  times  at  the  Galata  Serai ; 
but  what  good  a  set  of  careless,  ignorant  men  could  do 


Chap.  XX.  VISIT  TO  DB.  DAVIS.  '"^  207 

by  smoking  their  tchibouques  together  at  the  top  of  the 
Pera  hill,  was  not  easily  discovered.  The  belief  en- 
tertained by  the  Frank  respectabilities  that  their  bowels 
were  safe,  was  shaken  by  the  sudden  seizure  and  death 
of  a  Swiss  merchant,  who  was  a  fine  strong  young  man 
in  the  morning,  and  a  corpse  before  night  He  died 
down  in  Galata,  where  he  had  resided ;  but  diolera 
marched  up  the  infidel  hill,  and  into  the  most  aristo- 
cratic quarter,  and  took  in  its  grip  sundry  Franks,  as 
if  they  had  been  but  poor  ill-fed  Turks,  Greeks,  Arme- 
nians or  Jews. 

On  the  14th  of  January,  after  a  visit  to  the  filthy 
Arsenal,  I  felt  very  unwell,  but  I  had  none  of  the  well- 
known  symptoms  of  cholera,  and  certainly  neither  I  nor 
my  son  ever  felt  any  alarm  on  our  account ;  but  the 
firequency  with  which  fimerals  of  Greeks  and  Armenians 
were  now  passing  our  corner,  with  the  faces  exposed, 
and  the  nasal  chaunting  of  the  attendant  priests,  had  a 
saddening  and  depressing  effect  upon  the  spirits,  and 
altogether  our  discomfort  at  Pera  was  great. 

On  the  following  day  I  resolved  to  go  to  San  Ste- 
fano,  on  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  to  visit  our  friend  Dr. 
Davis.  The  stormy  weather  did  not  permit  our  going 
by  sea.  The  sleet  and  rain,  and  a  portmanteau  to 
carry,  did  not  square  with  a  journey  on  horseback,  so 
we  hired  a  vile  Turkish  aruba.  This  vehicle  was  partly 
windowed  up,  but  nearly  all  the  glasses  were  broken ; 
and  it  was  partly  closed  by  curtains,  but  the  curtains 
were  ragged,  and  kept  constantly  flying  out  in  the  wind. 
Of  all  our  miserable  journeys,  this  was  about  the  most 
miserable.  We  set  off  at  2  P.M.,  and  did  not  reach  the 
place  of  our  destination  until  5,  tihe  total  distance  being 


208  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

barely  eight  miles.  The  creeks  were  all  swelled  into 
great  rivers;  the  extensive  hollow  between  Macrikeui 
and  the  Model  Farm  was  almost  entirely  under  water, 
looking  like  a  lake.  In  the  open  country,  and  along 
the  cliflfe  which  flank  the  Propontis,  the  wind  and  the 
rain  assailed  us  most  pitilessly.  It  blew  a  hurricane, 
and  every  gust  came  in  upon  us  through  the  broken 
glasses  and  the  spaces  which  the  curtains  ought  to  have 
secured.  The  sky  of  this  region  of  "  eternal  summer** 
was  as  cloudy  and  black  as  any  English  sky;  thick 
mists  rolled  over  the  plain  and  broad  hills  on  our  right, 
and  the  Propontis  on  our  left  was  covered  by  a  dense 
fog.  We  were  on  the  storm-track :  we  were  crossing 
the  path  of  the  north-easters  that  were  charging  down 
from  the  Black  Sea. 

**  In  Corum  atque  Eamm  solitus  Bsevire  fiagellis 
Barbarus  -^olis  nunqiiam  hoc  in  carcere  passes."* 

In  the  dusk  of  the  evening — cramped,  stifl^  wet,  and 
cold — ^we  entered  the  village  of  San  Stefano. 

We  had  left  alarm  and  sadness  behind  us^  and  we 
found  fresh  sadness  here.  Dr.  Davis,  who  had  been 
disappointed,  and  kept  in  a  constant  state  of  imeasiness 
and  fret,  had  suflered  a  very  severe  illness,  and  had  lost 
the  sight  of  an  eye.  He  was  still  suflFering,  but  he  and 
all  his  family  were  rejoiced  to  see  us  again.  They  gave 
us  an  hospitable  reception,  though  put  to  it  to  procure 
the  wherewithal,  there  being  quite  a  dearth  here,  and 
communication  with  Constantinople  being  almost  cut  off. 
Last  autumn,  Mr.  N.  Davis,  the  Doctor's  brother,  had 
been  to  Nicomedia,  and  had  made  a  little  tour  in  Asia 
Minor  in  search  of  trees  to  plant  on  the  Model  Farm. 

♦  Juvenal,  Sat,  x. 


Chap.  XX.  CHOLEBA  AT  SAN  STEFANO.  209 

His  notions  as  to  the  state  of  tbe  country,  the  back- 
wardness of  all  agriculture,  the  effects  of  oppressive  and 
irregular  taxation,  and  the  crushing  effects  produced  by 
the  Armenian  usurers  and  their  enormous  rates  of  in- 
terest, coincided  with  mine.  We  had  not  been  in  com- 
munication— we  bad  made  our  observations  in  different 
parts  of  the  country ;  but  when  we  compared  our  notes 
they  agreed  in  totOj  as  did  also  the  conclusions  to  which 
each  of  us  had  separately  come. 

If  we  had  run  away  from  cholera,  we  were  very  soon 
convinced  that  so  short  a  flight  was  useless.  The 
evening  after  our  arrival,  as  we  were  sitting  down  to 
dinner,  Dr.  Davis  was  hastily  summoned  to  the  house 
of  a  rich  Armenian  in  the  viUage.  He  soon  returned, 
declaring  that  if  he  had  ever  seen  a  case  of  cholera  he 
had  seen  one  now.  The  patient,  who  lived  just  across 
the  street,  was  a  young  girl  who  had  come  a  few  days 
before  from  Constantinople.  The  Doctor  administered 
opium,  which  had  been  proved  to  be  very  effective  in 
the  earliest  stage  of  the  disease.  The  poor  girl  lingered 
two  more  days  and  then  died.  Mrs.  Davis  was  greatly 
alarmed,  not  for  herself,  but  for  her  dear  little  children. 
No  other  attack  was,  however,  heard  of  in  the  village 
for  some  weeks. 

I  went  repeatedly  to  the  dismal  Model  Farm,  where 
hardly  anything  had  been  done  in  the  right  way,  where 
all  the  plans  of  the  Doctor  had  been  upset  or  deranged 
by  the  cupidity,  jealousy,  and  hatred  of  the  Armenian, 
Boghos  Dadian.  The  weather  continued  to  be  bois- 
terous and  cold.  We  had  in-door  resources :  Bishop 
Southgate  came  in  almost  every  evening  with  his  rich 
stores  of  Turkish  information ;  and  the  merry  Minister 

VOL.  II.  p 


210  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Ckap.  XX. 

of  the  United  States,  with  his  admirable  stories  of 
American  life,  was  generally  with  us  both  morning  and 
evening. 

On  Monday  the  17th  of  January  the  Greeks  cele- 
brated their  Epiphany.  They  began  by  times.  At 
the  second  hour  afler  midnight  a  fellow  went  thn»9^ 
the  streets  of  the  village  beating  the  rough  pavement 
with  a  heavy  club,  like  a  "  Yangin  var"  man  of  Con- 
stantinople when  a  fire  breaks  out  About  half  an 
hour  later  some  men  at  the  Greek  church  beat  with 
sticks  and  mallets  upon  the  suspended  iron  plate  which 
serves  in  lieu  of  the  Turk-prohibited  bells.  This 
monotonous  clatter,  at  a  very  few  paces  from,  our  bed- 
room, continued  for  some  time.  Next  we  heard  a 
priest  singing  psalms  through  the  nose  in  the  street. 
Our  sleep  was  pretty  well  murdered,  but  I  did  contrive 
to  doze  for  two  or  three  hours,  and  can  give  no  account 
of  what  passed  in  that  interval.  At  sunrise  we  were 
started  out  of  our  beds  by  new  and  much  louder  noises. 
All  the  Greeks  of  the  village,  formed  into  loose  pro- 
cessional order,  were  following  their  priests  to  the 
margin  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  which  flowed  close 
under  one  of  the  fronts  of  the  Doctor's  house.  The 
priests  were  psalmodizing  most  nasally ;  the  people 
were  talking  and  laughing  as  if  they  had  some  good 
joke  in  hand.  There  was  no  solemnity  or  seriousness, 
but  the  very  antithesis  of  solemnity.  The  priests 
appeared  to  be  far  gone  in  raki :  we  were  assured  by  a 
closer  observer  that  one  of  them  was  very  drunk. 
They  occasionally  stopped  the  psalmody  to  take  their 
share  in  the  merriment  and  laughter.  These  priests 
advanced  to  the  end  of  a  short,  rotten,  wooden  jetty, 


'^^       ^-^MBV 


Chap.  XX.  BAPTISM  OF  THE  CROSS.  211 

which  projected  into  the  Fropontis.  Some  of  ihe 
laymen  got  into  a  caique  and  pulled  it  a  few  yards 
ahead  of  the  jetty ;  then  a  burly  priest,  after  saying  a 
prayer  and  making  some  signs,  threw  a  crucifix  into 
the  sea,  and  instantly  three  of  the  fellows  who  were  in 
the  boat  plunged  into  the  water  head-foremost  after  it. 
It  must  have  been  a  chilling  immersion,  for  the  morn- 
ing was  bitterly  cold.  Perhaps  it  was  on  this  account 
that  so  few  of  the  Greeks  dived ;  but  the  smallness  of 
their  number  was  noted  by  some  as  a  proof  of  the  decay 
of  orthodox  devotion  at  San  Stefano.  The  man  who 
succeeded  in  finding  the  cross  and  fishing  it  up  firom 
the  bottom  of  the  sea  was  hailed  with  many  shouts* 

It  was  a  tame  business,  the  plungers  being  so  few, 
and  there  being  no  struggle  in  the  water  or  under  it. 
When  the  performers  used  to  be  many,  and  the  zeal 
and  emulation  very  great,  it  was  not  unusual  for  one  or 
two  of  the  divers  to  get  drowned.  The  recoverer  of 
the  cross  was  conducted  to  shore,  and  then  to  the 
church,  in  a  sort  of  rude  triumph,  a  priest  supporting 
him  on  either  side  chanting  through  his  nose,  the  rest 
of  the  men  halloing,  the  women  and  children  scream- 
ing, and  all  the  dogs  of  the  village  barking.  To-day 
the  recoverer  of  the  cross  must  drink  raki  with  every  ' 
Greek  in  the  place,  and  receive  the  compliments  of 
all,  and  until  this  day  twelvemonth  he  will  be  styled 
and  denominated  Agios  Hovannes,  or  St.  John.  This 
strange  ceremony  is  called  "  Baptizing,  the  Cross.**  It 
is  performed,  in  precisely  the  same  manner,  at  all  the 
sea-ports  and  at  every  sea-side  village.  The  place 
where  it  is  done  with  most  eclat  is  the  very  large 
village  on  the  Bosphorus  called  Arnaout-keui.     We 

p2 


212  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

were  there  ten  days  before  this  festival  of  the  Epiphany, 
and  saw  a  great  number  of  Greek  vessels  lying  at 
anchor,  and  waiting  for  the  blessed  day.     They  were 
bound  for  the  Black   Sea,  but  would  not  trip  their 
anchors  until  after  the  Baptism  of  the  Cross.     It  was, 
however,  this  year  observed  at  Arnaout-keui  that  the 
plungers  were  neither  so  numerous  nor  so  enthusiastic 
as  in  former  times ;  and  there,  as  at  San  Stefano,  the 
falling  off  was  attributed  less  to  the  cold  weather  than 
to  a  decay  of  religious  fervour.     There  had  been  years 
when  the  mariners  of  Arnaout-keui  had  gone  mad  with 
the  excitement,  had  grappled  with  one  another  under 
the  water,  had  fought  and  clawed  and  scratched  for  the 
possession  of  the  cross,  and  the  man  who  secured  it, 
half-suffocated,  had  come  to  the  surface  of  the  waves 
with   the  emblem   of  salvation  in  his  hand,   with   a 
blackened  face  and  with  blood  streaming  from  face, 
body,  and  arms.     A  frightful  and  revolting  picture 
All  the  better  educated  Greeks  were  now  ashamed  of 
it,  and  indeed  disgusted  with  the  whole  of  the  ceremony, 
however  quietly  it  might  be  managed ;  but  too  many 
of  these  men  in  getting  rid  of  superstition  had  avowedly 
got  rid  of  nearly  every  religious  belief.     "  C'est  que 
nous  lisons  le  grand  Voltaire  et  tous  Us  philosopJies 
Franqais^**  said  one  of  these  Greek  gentlemen  to  me. 

On  the  morning  of  Friday,  the  21st  of  January,  we 
took  boat  and  left  San  Stefano  for  the  village  of  Macri. 
keui.  This  place  the  Armenian  Dadians  had  promised 
the  Sultan  they  would  convert  into  a  Birmingham,  a 
Sheffield,  or  a  Manchester,  or  rather  all  three  in  one ; 
and  they  had  brought  about  fourscore  men  from  Eng- 
land to  manage  all  these  works.     As  we  landed  the 


Chap.  XX.    ENGLISH  MECHANICS  AT  MACRl-KEUI.  213 

heavy  rains  re-commenced,  drenching  us  to  the  skin. 
Between  the  landing-place  and  the  village,  we  had  to 
walk  through  two  or  three  himdred  yards  of  the  usual 
mud  and  filth.  This  brought  us  to  a  row  of  new  houses 
entirely  occupied  by  English  workmen  and  their  iamilies. 
In  the  course  of  the  many  visits  I  afterwards  paid  to 
Macri-keui,  I  found  that  there  were  a  few  honourable 
exceptions — a  few  men  who  had  brought  with  them,  and 
preserved  under  very  adverse  circumstances,  English 
neatness,  comfort,  and  order — ^but  it  struck  us  very 
forcibly  that  these  dwellers  in  the  "English  row"  had 
done  nothing  to  set  an  improving  example  to  the  people 
of  the  country.  The  lane  in  which  they  lived  was  as 
muddy  and  dirty,  and  as  much  strewed  with  abomina- 
tions, as  any  part  of  the  village ;  their  houses — certainly 
roughly  and  badly  built  for  them  by  the  Armenians — 
were  as  dirty  and  disorderly  as  those  of  the  natives. 
At  last,  covered  with  mud,  and  streaming  with  the  rain, 

we  found  out  old  H 's  baraque,  a  comfortless,  wooden, 

Turkish  built  house.  The  old  woman  was  rather  an 
alarming  personage,  with  sharp,  inquisitive  eyes,  and  a 
very  lupine  expression  of  countenance.  In  a  country 
where  there  are  no  inns  one  is  often  obliged  to  throw 
oneself  on  the  hospitality  of  unknown  people,  without  the 
formality  of  introduction  or  recommendation ;  but  in 
this  case  we  were  furnished  with  a  letter  from  Dr.  Davis, 
and  the  people  (whatever  they  might  be  besides)  were 
English.  Never,  among  poor  Turks  or  Greeks,  had 
we  found  so  much  vulgarity,  selfishness,  and  inhospi* 
tality,  as  we  met  with  under  this  roof.  There  was  no 
going  away  through  that  pitiless  and  unceasing  storm  ; 
having  come,  I  did  not  like  wholly  to  lose  my  time  and 


v^rpvmvaBVHiQ^H^vHvgB^^is  —     '  <*■  t^i.  t* 


214  TUEKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

trouble ;  and  at  the  moment  I  knew  not  where  to  look 
for  oUier  quarters.  The  old  man  was  a  few  shades  more 
civilized  than  the  old  woman.  He  was  a  respectable 
sort  of  master  blacksmith,  or  working  engineer,  which 
had,  I  believe,  been  his  original  calling  at  home.  He 
might  even  have  been  an  able  man  in  that  way,  but  he 
was  old  when  he  came  to  the  country,  five  years  ago, 
and  it  now  appeared  to  me  that  he  was  not  very  far 
from  his  dotage,  and  that  he  was  perfectly  indifferent  to 
everything,  except  to  his  pay  and  o&er  emoluments. 
Tet  this  was  the  man  diat  the  Sultan,  at  the  instigation 
of  the  Armenians  (to  whom  he  was  all  submission),  had 
delighted  to  honour,  while  other  Englishmen  inhis  service, 
men  really  eminent  in  science  and  in  their  professions, 
like  Mr.  Sang  and  Mr.  Frederick  Taylor,  had  been  left 
almost  unnoticed,  and  with  insufficient  salaries  that  were 

most  irregularly  paid.     Old  H *s  salary  alone  was 

1000/.  a*year  English  money,  and  he  had  allowances 
for  house-rent,  for  provisions,  for  keep  of  horses,  etc., 
which  did  not  fall  short  of  300/.  a-year ;  and  then  he 
got  more  money  by  doing  little  jobs  for  the  great  pashas, 
and  good  commissions  on  traps  and  nicknacks  he  im- 
ported for  them  from  England ;  and  in  addition  to  all 
this  he  had  I  know  not  how  many  sons  and  sons-in-law, 
idling  about  the  place,  or  scampering  about  the  country 
with  horses,  on  snug  salaries  of  from  200/.  to  300/.^  a- 
year  each.  I  scarcely  know  what  I  said  to  one  of  these 
worthies  when  he  remarked  to  me  that  Turkey  was 
^^ getting,  a  sprinkling  of  manufactories!"  Before  he 
came  to  Turkey,  old  H received  from  Sultan  Ab- 
dul Medjid  the  Nishan,  or  Ottoman  decoration,  richly 
set  in  diamonds,  for  having  done  some  work  for  the 


Chap.  XX.    ENGLISH  MECHANICS  AT  MACM-KEUl.  215 

Forte:  and  since  his  settling  at  Macri-keui  he  had 
received,  from  the  same  bountiful  but  blind  prince, 
three  gold  snuff-boxes,  richly  set  in  diamonds.  With 
great  pride  the  old  woman  showed  us  these  imperial 
gifts,  and  told  us  how  the  Padishah  had  given  one  of  the 
boxes  with  his  own  hand,  in  presence  of  all  the  great 
pashas,  assembled  fer  the  occasion,  and  in  order  that 
they  might  see  and  understand  what  respect  and  honour 
were  due  to  the  director  of  these  imperial  fabrics. 

This  director*in-chief  exercised  no  moral  control  over 
his  men,  the  &r  greater  part  of  whom  much  needed 
some  such  control  and  the  force  of  a  good  example.  As 
good  English  mechanics  they  could  work  with  no  heart 
when  they  knew  that  what  they  were  about  was  ordered 
to  be  done  in  the  wrong  way,  and  must  end  in  a  ridi- 
culous failure.  A  good  many  of  them  had  been  here 
for  months,  and  had  never  been  set  to  work  at  all, 
because  their  factories  were  not  ready  for  them,  or 
because  the  machinery  had  not  yet  arrived  from  Eng- 
land or  from  France,  or  because  there  was  no  coal  to 
bum,  or  because  there  was  no  raw  material  wherewith 
to  worL  These  men  were  loitering  and  drinking  all 
day  long  in  the  punch-shop  and  Greek  coffee-houses,  or 
playing  billiards  at  a  table  which  a  speculating  Greek 
had  set  up  for  the  accommodation  of  the  English  colony. 
On  our  first  arrival  at  Constantinople,  in  August,  1847, 
we  had  been  struck  by  the  superscription  on  some  Eng- 
lish newspapers — ^^  To  the  British  Mechanics'  Institu- 
tion at  Macri-keui."  Good  old  Stampa  could  tell  us 
little  more  than  that  there  had  been  an  inauguration 
dinner  in  the  preceding  month  of  May,  and  that  he 
sometimes  received  newspapers  to  be  forwarded  to  the 


216  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

Institution.     On  inquiring  about  it  dn  the  spot^  we  found 

that  the  whole  affair  had  gone  to  the  dogs.     Mrs.  H 

said,  "  Our  men  likes  billiards  and  punch  in  the  even- 
ings, much  better  than  them  sort  of  things ;"  and  Mr. 

H laughed  and  nodded  his  head  assentingly  to  the 

elegant  proposition  of  his  spouse.  We  had  learned  from 
Dr.  Davis  (and  from  others  that  were  at  it)  that  the 
inauguration  dinner  had  been  an  affair  of  some  eclat ; 
that  a  good  many  Englishmen  came  down  to  it  from 
Constantinople ;  that  the  company  dined  out  in  tents 
pitched  in  a  field,  there  being  no  house  open  to  them  in  the 
village  capable  of  receiving  them ;  that  sundry  speeches 
were  made,  and  toasts  drunk,  to  the  success  of  the  British 
Mechanics'  Institution  at  Macri-keui.  There  was  some- 
thing in  the  idea  and  locality  to  hit  the  imagination,  the 
attempt  seemed  honourable,  and  if  it  had  been  properly 
carried  out,  might  have  been  productive  of  some  good. 
But  properly  speaking  there  had  never  been  an  attempt 
made — there  had  been  an  inaugiu'ation  without  a  begin- 
ning. This  was  Turkish  fashion.  The  men  had  never 
had  a  room  in  which  to  meet  or  keep  their  books ;  they 
had  only  sixty  volumes  to  commence  with,  and  the 

number  never  rose  to  eighty.     Mrs.  H had  them  in 

her  house,  under  lock  and  key,  and  sad  tatter-demalions 
they  were  I  It  might  have  helped  to  keep  the  men  out 
of  the  spirit-shops.  Some  of  them  were  very  industrious 
and  quiet  and  steady  mechanics  when  they  left  England 
(having  testimonials  to  that  effect  from  their  employers), 
but  they  had  nearly  all  been  spoiled  and  disordered  in 
this  head-quarter  of  disorder.  Even  those  who  had 
been  fairly  set  to  work  were  often  left  in  idleness  for 
weeks  at  a  time,  and  as  for  their  pay  it  was  alwap 


Chap.  XX.  RELIGION  AT  MACRI-KEUI.  217 

three,  four,  or  five  months  in  arrear,  and  whether  they 
worked  or  played  made  no  difference  in  their  getting 
their  salaries.  There  was  an  utter  dearth  of  amuse- 
ments and  pastimes,  and  the  only  things  that  were  cheap 
in  the  country  were  tobacco,  bad  wine,  and  ardent  spirits. 
In  their  drunken  freaks  they  often  got  into  mischief* 
One  night  a  small  party  of  them  thrashed  an  entire 
guard  of  the  Sultan's  regular  troops.  They  all  seemed 
to  be  abandoned,  both  by  Embassy  and  Consulate,  as 
lost  sheep,  or  as  fellows  scarcely  having  a  claim  upon 
British  protection.  I  knew  myself  of  several  complaints 
which  were  justly  and  reasonably  founded,  and  for 
which  they  certainly  ought  to  have  obtained  redress. 
During  Sir  Stratford  Canning's  long  absence  they  never 
obtained  any  redress  whatever.  No  one  took  heed  of 
them.  The  British  chaplain,  Dr.  B— ,  had  been  dead 
some  eighteen  months  or  two  years,  and  his  place  was  not 
filled  until  within  a  week  or  two  of  our  departure  from 
Turkey.  The  English  chapel  at  Pera  had  been  burned 
down,  like  the  English  Palace  or  Ambassadorial  resi- 
dence. They  were  rebuilding  the  palace  (at  an  immense 
expense)^  but  nothing  was  done  to  restore  the  place  of 
worship.  It  was  a  long  and  comfortless  journey  from 
Macri-keui;  but  I  believe  that  if  there  had  been  a 
chapel  and  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  (as 
there  ought  to  have  been),  many  of  these  men  would 
have  attended  regularly  on  the  Sabbath  mornings.    Old 

Mrs.  H had  indeed  taken  charge  of  their  spiritual 

welfare,  for  she  belonged  to  some  dissenting  sect — I 
know  not  which  or  what — ^and  had  at  one  time  been  a 
sort  of  she-elder  to  a  conventicle  somewhere  about 
Limehouse  or  Botherhithe.     There  were  three  Scotch 


218  TUBKET  AKD  ITS  DEBTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

miflsioDarieB  belonging  to  the  radical  and  all  but  revolu- 
tionary Free  Kirk  party,  settled  in  Constantinople,  but 
their  miasion  (in  which  I  oould  discover  no  agn  of  suc- 
cess) was  to  convert  the  Jews  of  that  city.    One  of  diem, 

however,  came  occasionally  to  Mrs.  H 's  house,  and 

held  forth  in  "  our  drawing-room*''  The  American  mis- 
sionaries at  Constantinople,  who  were  three  times  more 
numerous  than  tihie  Scotch,  sent  down  one  of  their  body 
to  Macri-keui  rather  more  frequently,  although  their 
attention  was  absorbed  by  the  conversion  of  the  Arme- 
nians* Neither  the  Scoteh  nor  the  American  mis- 
sionaries could  condescend  to  use  the  magnificent  liturgy 

of  the  Anglican  Church.     Then  Mrs.  H had  other 

and  far  less  legitimate  preachers  and  expounders  of 
the  Gospel,  certain  laymen,  without  education  and  with- 
out any  definable  sect  or  set  of  religious  opinions — men 
pretending  to  have  had  *^  calls ;"  and  when  there  was 
no  missionary  one  of  these  self-appointed  ministers 
harangued  the  mechanics.  There  was  a  recently  im- 
ported Nottingham  stocking-weaver,  who  was  very  soon 
discovered  to  be  the  greatest  and  cunningest  reprobate 
of  the  whole  colony.  He  was  a  perfect  master  of  the 
shibboleth  and  farrago  of  the  low  conventicle :  he  ex- 
plained, in  a  manner  quite  satisfactory  to  Mrs.  H , 

that  he  was  a  *^  chosen  vessel,"  that  he  had  had  a  *^  call,** 

and  Mrs.  H had  him  up  to  preach  and  expound. 

The  American  missionaries  were  men  of  very  sober 
lives ;  some  of  them  carried  their  abstinence  to  the  utter- 
most pole  of  teetotalism.  Sermons  were  delivered 
against  the  vice  of  drunkenness,  and  a  total  abstinence 
from  all  fermented  liquors  was  earnestly  recommended. 
The  high  priestess  of  this  tabernacle  declared  herself  a 


Ghxp.  XX.      IRON-WOSKS  AT  BAROUT-KHANEH.  219 

conTert ;  but  then  she  dealt  largely  in  English  bottled 
porter  imd  ale,  in  rum  and  brandy  likewise^  and  as  one 
who  had  been  of  the  congregation  (at  the  hearing  of 
proofi  demonstrative  that  water  was  die  best  drink  for 

man)  was  about  leaving  the  house,  Mrs.  H took 

him  aside  and  told  him  lliat  she  had  received  a  good 
supply  of  beer  and  brandy  by  the  last  steamer  from 
England,  and  that  i^e  would  be  most  happy  to  ftirnish 
him  or  any  of  his  friends*  And,  in  effect,  the  longest 
carouses,  the  most  disgraceful  excesses  committed  at 
Macri*keui,  were  upon  beer  and  spirits  sold  to  the  men  by 
the  wife  of  the  director  of  these  imperial  manufactories. 
On  Saturday  the  23rd  of  January  we  walked  from 
Macri^keui  to  the  iron-works  at  Barout-Khaneh,  and  to 
an  iron  steamboat  which  was  building  on  the'  bank  of 
the  creek  not  thirty  yards  beyond  (he  walls  of  Ihe  great 
powder-works.    The  sparks  from  the  tall  chimney  of 

old  H ^'s  steam-engine  were  flying  about  on  one  side 

of  the  powder-mills,  and  here  were  the  chimneys  of  one 
furnace  and  two  forges!  It  was  difficult  to  conceive 
how  it  happened  that  the  whole  of  Barout-Khameh  was 
not  blown  up.  There  had  been  terrible  explosions  in 
former  times,  before  the  powder-mills  had  such  in- 
flammable neighbours.  The  iron  boat  looked  like  a 
reel  in  a  bottle.  They  were  building  it  in  a  place 
which  had  no  exit  to  the  sea  except  by  a  narrow  mouth 
choked  up  by  a  sandbank.  ^^This  boat,"  said  Mr. 
Phillips,  the  builder,  *^  will  cost  the  Sultan  five  or  six 
times  the  sum  for  which  he  m^ht  have  bought  a  good 
iron  boat  in  England.  When  she  is  finished — ^if  that 
day  ever  comes— they  will  have  to  spend  a  large  sum 
of  money  in  clearing  out  the  mouth  of  this  choked  creek 


220  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

SO  as  to  get  her  afloat  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  And 
then  I  must  send  her  out  without  her  engines.  She 
ought  to  have  been  built  at  the  Arsenal  on  the  Golden 
Horn.  There  are  fifty  good  places  for  the  purpose, 
without  any  impediments,  where  she  might  have  been 
launched  from  the  stocks  into  clear  deep  water  without 
any  expense.  I  told  the  Armenian  Dadians  that  this 
was  not  a  place  for  such  building;  they  told  me  that 
that  was  not  my  afiair,  that  my  contract  only  bound 
me  to  build  the  boat,  and  that  they  would  have  it  built 
here !  Those  men  will  never  hear  reason.  I  cannot 
understand  them."  I,  however,  understood  why  they 
had  selected  this  eulrde-sac^  this  unsightly  and  perilous 
hole.  It  stood  within  their  regions — it  was  within  the 
kingdom  of  the  Dadians,  which  extended  from  the 
land-walls  of  Constantinople  to  their  other  powder-works 
at  St.  George,  on  the  lake  called  Ponte  Piccolo,  five 
miles  beyond  San  Stefano.  Over  all  this  region  the 
Dadians  were  lords  paramount.  This  was  also  the 
reason  of  their  fixing  the  Model  Farm  where  they  did, 
instead  of  allowing  Dr.  Davis  to  choose  out  of  a  hun- 
dred spots  that  were  far  preferable.  If  the  iron  boat 
had  been  built  at  the  Arsenal,  the  work  would  not  have 
been  under  the  control  of  these  grasping  Armenians, 
and  they  would  get  no  diamonds,  or  honours,  or  favours 
when  she  was  launched.  Forges,  furnaces,  buildings, 
outbuildings,  ship-yard,  everything  had  to  be  made  for 
the  building  of  this  one  boat,  whereas  at  the  Arsenal 
there  was  everything  ready  made,  with  most  abundant 
room.  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  they  will  ever  build 
another  boat  in  this  hole,  and  so  many  thousands  of 
piastres  will  have  been  wasted.     The  iron  of  the  boat 


Chap.  XX.  tTNSATISFACTOBY  RESULTS.  221 

was  English,  every  inch  of  it;  hut  the  poor,  deluded 
Sultan  had  been  given  to  believe  that  it  was  made  from 

Turkish  ore  and  prepared  here  by  old  H under 

the  auspices  and  scientific  superintendence  of  Hohannes 
and  Boghos  Dadian  and  their  sons  and  nephews.  For 
showing  a  little  iron  which  he  had  really  made,  old 

H had  gotten  diamonds.     The  master-builder,  the 

workmen,  and  the  materials  upon  which  they  worked, 
and  the  tools  with  which  they  worked,  were  all 
English.  The  keel,  the  ribs  and  knees,  and  all  the 
parts  requiring  skiliul  blacksmithship  had  been  brought 
from  England,  Mr.  Phillips  not  being  able  to  get 
them  forged  here.  She  was  more  than  half  a  ready- 
made  craft.  Then  where  the  honour  and  glory  of  build- 
ing or  putting  her  together  here  ?  And  where  the  use  ? 
Neither  Turks  nor  Armenians  were  learning  how  to  do 
such  work  themselves.  Greeks  were  nether  employed  by 
the  thoroughly  Armenian  Dadians.  The  Turks,  who 
were  to  learn,  found  that  it  was  hard  work  with  very 
little  pay,  and  decamped :  the  few  Armenians  who  re- 
mained,  worked  as  by  corvSe^  standing  in  dread  of  the 
far-reaching  power  of  the  Dadians,  and  getting  most 
miserable  pay.  Mr.  Phillips  had  only  four  English 
workmen  with  him ;  and  these  poor  fellows  really  did 
all  the  work.  It  was  a  laughable  or  a  sighable  sight  to 
see  the  degree  of  assistance  afibrded  to  them  by  the 
Armenians.  These  four  Englishmen  had  received  no 
pay  for  the  last  four  months,  and  some  of  them  had 
wives  and  chUdren  in  England  to  whom  money  ought 
to  have  been  remitted.  By  their  written  agreements 
all  these  mechanics  were  to  be  paid  monthly.  They 
could  get  no  redress  at  Pera,  being  told  by  the  consul 


222  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DBSTmY.  Chap.  XX. 

that|  seeing  that  they  had  entered  into  the  service  of  the 
Turkish  government,  he  could  not  interfere  on  their 
hehalf.  But  tlieirs  was  not  military  service,  Turkey 
was  not  to  be  considered  like  any  civilized  Christian 
country,  and  surely  by  ei^aging  to  work  for  two,  three, 
or  more  years  in  these  manufactories,  the  liien  had  not 
ferfeited  their  quality  or  their  r^ts  as  British  subjects. 
Moreover,  llieir  contracts,  one  and  all,  were  signed 
by  Hohannes  Dadian;  and  it  was  competent  to  the 
British  eonsul  to  remonstrate  widi  fiiat  Armenian  or  his 
representatives.  This  irregularity  of  pay  alone  was 
enough  to  demoralisse  the  colony.  When,  after  long 
privaticms,  the  men  got  money  in  a  lump,  they  rushed 
into  excesses.  Mr.  Phillips  bitterly  regretted  ever 
having  come  to  the  country.  He  was  a  most  respect- 
able man,  very  intelligent,  and,  in  his  own  profession, 
eminent:  he  was  a  native  of  Hastings,  but  had  long 
be^i  employed  at  Cowes,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  in 
other  yards^  where  some  of  the  most  beautiful  of  modern 
vessels  have  been  built  Like  Dr.  Davis  he  was  kept 
in  a  constant  fret,  and  like  the  Doctor  he  had  a  serious 
attack  of  illness.  When  we  left  the  country  in  July 
he  had  be^i  suffering  for  nearly  two  months  under  a 
most  violent  attack  of  ophthalmia.  At  the  time  of  this, 
our  first  visit,  to  the  iron  boat,  he  was  lodged  in  a  lai^e, 
deserted,  half-mined  kiosk,  built  by  Sultan  Mahmoud^ 
whidv  together  with  a  small  mosque,  stood  on  the  other 
side  of  die  creek.  A  more  desolate  and  comfortless 
lodging  can  hardly  be  imagined.  About  a  score  of 
o&er  British  subjects  were  waiting  for  the  completion 
of  fhe  mamifactories  at  Zeitoun  Boumu;  and  these 
were  joijoied  in  the  course  of  the  month  of  February  by 


Chap.  X3L  ENGLISH  MIKING  ENGINEBBS.  223 

two  or  three  score  of  Frenehmeoy  Belgianfl,  and  Ger- 
mans. The  pay  of  all  these  men  commenced  from  the 
day  lliey  signed  their  contracts  in  Cfaristaidosn*  The 
mimey  thus  wasted  must  hare  amounted  to  an  ^lormous 
sum*  But,  whether  the  men  worked  or  not,  it  may  be 
said  that  eyery  piastre  spent  on  iJiese  imperial  &brics 
was  thrown  away  I  Had  the  goyernmeut  been  rich  and 
the  country  prosperous^  tiiis  would  still  haye  been  a 
deplorable  waste ;  but  the  condition  of  the  country  was 
such  as  I  haye  described,  and  with  yery  little  metaphor 
it  might  be  said  that  eyary  piastre  was  squeesed  from 
the  blood  of  a  beggared  people* 

While  we  stayed  with  Mr.  P ,  there  came  in 

a  Northumbrian  mining  engineer  and  a  Cornwall  man 
of  the  same  profession.  The  first  had  been  engaged  by 
Hohannes  Dadian  to  seek  after  and  open  coal-mines, 
and  he  had  been  three  or  four  months  in  Turkey  doing 
nothing :  the  secomi  was  to  seek  for  and  work  copper- 
mines,  and  he  had  d<me  just  aa  much  as  the  first 
Neither  of  these  yery  intelligent  and  practical  men  had 
eyer  (while  we  stayed  in  the  country)  the  labourers,  the 
machinery,  or  tools  necessary  to  make  a  beginning. 
During  ten  months  the  most  tiiat  they  did  was  to  make 
two  or  three  assays  of  ore,  and  two  or  three  short  trips 
with  young  Arikel  Dadian,  who  pretended  to  be  a 
geologist  and  mineralogist,  and  who  was  always  expect 
ing  to  find  gdct-twnes.  It  would  be  yery  difficult  to 
calculate  how  much  money  the  Sultan  had  been  made 
to  apend  in  discoyering  mines  and  coal-beds  which  were 
well  known  to  European  trayellers  before  he  was  bom, 
and  lor  working  mines  which  had  neyer  been  worked  at 
all.    It  was  only  recently  that  practical  men — men  Vi 


224  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

our  Northumbrian  and  Cornwall  friends,  who  had  worked 
in  mines  in  both  hemispheres — had  been  imported : 
previously  the  Dadians  had  brought  only  scientific  men. 
There  was  our  friend  Mr.  Sang,  the  engineer,  who  was 
a  good  geologist,  and  who  had  been  five  years  in  the 
country  without  having  had  the  opportunity  of  doing 
one  useful  thing  to  earn  his  considerable  salary.  He 
came  out  as  a  civil  engineer;  he  came  to  make  roads 
and  drain  pestilential  marshes,  and  not  to  discover 
mines.  But  the  very  first  thing  to  which  the  Arme- 
nians directed  his  attention  was  to  a  pretended  disco- 
very of  gold  in  a  valley  above  the  Lake  of  Ponte 
Piccolo.  This  gold-mine  of  Hohannes  Dadian  was 
worse  than  King  Come/s,  for  his  Milesian  majesty's 
gold  all  turned  out  to  be  lead,  whereas  the  Armenian's 
turned  out  to  be  nothing  at  all.  There  was  our  friend 
Dr.  Laurence  Smith,  the  American  philosopher,  who 
had  been  here  these  eighteen  months  doing  nothing  on 
a  large  salary,  and  whom  we  left  six  months  later  doing 
nothing ;  then  there  was  a  French  geologist  and  mine- 
ralogist who  went  away  about  this  time,  after  making  a 
few  excursions  and  pocketing  much  money ;  and  now 
there  remained  this  coal-mining  engineer,  this  copper- 
mining  engineer^  and  other  practical  working  miners, 
all  with  good  salaries  and  all  with  their  hands  tied  I 
Over  in  Asia  we  had  seen  sure  signs  of  mineral  wealth 
almost  everywhere,  and  good  traces  of  coal  in  many 
places.  Our  Northumbrian  acquaintance  told  us,  that 
if  he  had  been  allowed  and  provided  with  the  necessary 
means,  he  would  have  begun  working  a  good  coal-mine 
either  in  the  island  of  Mitylene  (Lesbos)  or  at  Ghatal- 
Tep^  about  twenty-five  miles  from  Lampsacus,  and 


Chap.  XX.        ILL-TREATMENT  OP  FOREIGNERS.  ?25 

fifteen  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  the  Sea  of  Marmora« 
"  I  wanted,"  said  he,  "  to  begin  by  making  a  road ;  but 
the  Armenians  told  me  that  this  would  cost  a  deal  of 
money,  and  that  the  coal  could  very  well  be  carried 
down  to  the  sea  on  the  hacks  of  mtdes  and  asses  r  This 
coal-field — of  good  bituminous  coal — if  not  first  disco- 
vered, was  for  the  first  time  carefully  examined,  by  Dr. 
Smith,  on  the  31st  of  December,  1846.  In  the  course 
of  a  very  short  geological  tour  our  American  friend 
made  several  interesting  discoveries.  Between  Kumalk 
and  the  Dardanelles,  near  the  Scamander,  close  to  the 
village  of  Karagialk,  he  found  the  substance  meerschaum 
(exactly  like  that  of  Eski  Shehr)  in  the  midst  of 
basaltic  rocks.  He  would  have  made  many  other  ex- 
cursions, but  whenever  he  wished  to  go,  the  Armenians 
told  him  that  his  presence  would  be  wanted  at  Constan- 
tinople. These  unintelligible  manoBUvrers  absolutely 
put  it  out  of  the  power  of  any  man  to  do  anything  for 
ihe  country  or  for  the  government  that  was  paying  him. 
I  used  to  think,  at  times,  that  the  great  object  of  the 
Dadians  was  to  throw  discredit,  through  some  of  its 
subject^  upon  every  civilized  nation.  Before  importing 
Americans — to  be  condemned  to  inactivity  and  useless- 
ness  —  they  had  imported  men  from  well  nigh  every 
country  and  state  in  old  Europe.  One  of  their  objects 
must  certainly  have  been  to  gratify  their  bloated  vanity 
by  seeing  gentlemen  of  education  dancing  attendance  on 
them,  and  by  having  the  opportunity  of  insulting  and 
humiliating  them.  For  some  time  they  had  treated  Mr. 
Sang  as  if  he  had  been  but  a  menial  servant,  summon- 
ing him  to  their  presence  at  all  hours,  to  put  the  most 
ridiculous  and  frivolous  questions,  by  means  of  a  rude 

VOL.  11.  Q 


•226  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XX. 

running  footman  of  their  own  unmannerly  race^  who 
never  did  more  than  pronounce  the  coarse  Turkish 
monosyllable  "  ghel "  (come).  The  manner  in  which 
they  behaved  towards  the  poor  mechanics  they  had 
entrapped  was  to  the  last  degree  unfeeling.  The 
poor  Germans  and  Belgians  and  French  had  come  at 
very  low  salaries  to  this  now  very  dear  country:  they 
had  been  promised  comfortable  lodgings  all  ready  for 
them;  they  were  thrust  into  an  immense  unfinished 
barrack  at  Zeitoun  Bournu,  without  windows  to  the 
rooms,  without  fire-places  or  fuel,  with  the  wet  streaming 
from  the  new  walls,  in  which  the  stupid  Armenians  had 
worked  with  mortar  mixed  with  sea-water,  which  would 
never  properly  dry.  In  a  wretchedly  cold  and  damp 
day  in  th§  month  of  February  I  saw  many  of  these  men 
thus  lodged.  They  were  sleeping  on  the  bare  boards ; 
some  were  suffering  from  rheumatic  attacks ;  all  were 
cursing  the  hour  on  which  they  first  saw  the  face  of 
Hohannes  Dadian,  who  had  been  man-hunting  through- 
out Europe.  Some  of  the  Germans  could  not  bear  it : 
they  got  the  little  money  that  was  due  to  them  and  took 
their  departure  for  their  own  countries.  By  means  of 
their  guilds  and  close  connexions  with  all  their  brother- 
artizans,  and  through  their  wanderschafts^  these  men 
would  not  fail  of  making  their  case  well  known  in  Ger- 
many. The  Dadians  would  entrap  no  more  Germans. 
As  the  English  mechanics  have  no  such  close  imion 
and  extensive  correspondence,  they  ought  to  be  publicly 
warned  of  what  they  have  to  expect  in  going  to  Turkey. 
Taking  their  number,  the  ratio  of  mortality  among  the 
English  workmen  alone  had  been  fearfully  high. 

This  sad  story  and  the  preceding  remarks  have  car- 


Cbat.  XX.  FBIVOLITY  OP  THE  SULTAN.  227 

lied  me  a  long  way  from  our  honest  Hastings  man  and 
his  cold  lodging  in  the  imperial  Kiosk.  Before  w€i  left 
that  place  a  fresh  storm  commenced,  and  it  was  too  late 
to  think  of  returning  to  Pera.  We  were  again  un- 
willing guests  of  a  very  unwilling  hostess.    Old  H 

was,  however,  in  great  glee.  He  had  been  up  in  Con- 
stantinople; he  had  seen  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha,  and 
another  great  Pasha,  and  he  had  been  assured  that  the 
Sultan  had  made  up  his  mind  to  have  iron  roofe  and 
iron  flooring  for  an  entire  apartment  in  the  new  stone 
palace  that  was  building  for  him  on  the  Bosphorus. 
The  Sultan  also  wanted  some  iron  toys  to  be  cast  im- 
mediately. '^  In  short,"  said  this  enlightened  improver 
and  introducer  of  useiul  arts,  "  I  must  give  up  my  iron- 
foundry  entirely  to  fancy-work  for  the  new  palace,  and 
for  the  Sultan.  This  will  get  me  great  favour."  "  And 
I  should  not  wonder  if  it  got  you  a  new  gold  and  dia- 
mond snuffbox,"  said  Mrs.  H .     Dr.  Davis  had 

been  waiting  many  months  for  some  castings  for  his 
farm  machinery,  and  for  the  iron-work  of  his  excellent 
little  ploughs  which  the  Sultan  had  ordered  him  to  dis- 
tribute. He  had  written  and  sent  messages  to  Macri- 
keui  until  he  was  tired  out,  and  now  he  had  requested 

me  to  speak  to  H on  the  subject ;  but  what  chance 

was  there  that  this  old  man,  who  sailed  with  the  wind, 
and  who  was  the  vassal  of  Boghos  Dadian  (the  Doctor's 
persecutor),  would  be  moved  by  my  representations  ? 
or  how  expect  that  the  man  who  had  to  make  iron  roofs 
and  cast-iron  curtain-pins  for  his  Imperial  Majesty  the 
Sultan,  would  condescend  to  divert  his  attention  to  the 
forging  of  ploughshares?  He  said  he  would  think 
about  it 

q2 


228  TURKEY  4ND  ITS  DESTINT.  Chap.  XX. 

We  were  told  that  the  steamboat  of  this  morning  had 
brought  out  seventeen  more  English  artizans,  of  whom 
six  or  seven  were  people  from  Nottingham,  who  wove 
stockings  and  elastic  drawers;  and  that  an  Austrian 
steamer  which  had  come  in  from  Trieste  two  or  three 
days  ago,  had  brought  four  German  cutlers,  who  were 
to  make  penknives  and  razors  in  the  imperial  fabric  at 
Zeitoun  Bournu !  Eh  I  vogue  la  gaUre !  If  this  does 
not  save  the  Ottoman  Empire,  what  will  ? 


gbap.  xsl     nAsasG  dsetsbes  at  psba.  229 


CHAPTER  XXL 

Coistaiitnwple  ~  Tlw  DtaMsb^  Dvri^ 

and  \m  Gompramses  —  Bndmess  of  Tmkidi  SoldMis  — >  Tlw^  Sottaa^ 
Brotber,  Abdul  Haas  —  Mmdos  of  the  Male  Childm  of  the  ^ohan^ 
Sisters  —  Drendfia  Deadis  of  Mihr-on-Mah  SditaDa  and  Ateya  SoHana 
—  AdmiBt  Fslfai  FtalHi^TlM  Tianb  of  MoideRd  Cliildrai  —  HiUil 
Pteha^theFktiieToftlieBeCliildren — Births  in  Uie  Harem  of  fiwr  Chit- 
dim  of  Abdnl  Medjid -- Firing  of  Sahitas  ^  The  Saltan^  Motbw -->  IIm 
8oltan%  ProdigalitY  —  Sanm  Puha  the  finance  Minister  >—  SSr  Strat- 
ford Canning  —  Changes  in  Uie  GoTemment  —  Reschid  I^uiha  and 
Bisa  FSaaha  —  Increase  of  Inunoiality  —  Modem  French  literature  in 
Constantinople  —  French  Journals  —  Turkish  Ladies  —  Profligacy  and 
Bigotry  —  Domestie  life  — Amnsements  of  great  Turkish  Ladies* 

Although  such  near  neighbours  to  the  dancing  or 
twirling  dervishes^  we  did  not  give  them  much  of  our 
company.  The  holy  brotherhood,  however,  did  not 
seem  to  lack  society.  They  danced  or  twirled  on  Tues- 
days and  Fridays,  and  on  those  days  we  invariably  saw 
a  crowd  of  arubas  and  saddle-horses  in  waiting  in  the 
burying-ground  and  in  the  street  of  Pera.  The  Sultan 
came  several  times,  and  each  time  on  a  Tuesday.  On 
Friday  the  31st  of  December  we  went  in  to  see  the 
performance,  which  struck  me  as  being  tame  and  dull, 
compared  to  what  it  used  to  be  twenty  years  ago.  The 
twirling  of  the  dervishes  barely  lasted  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  and  never  reached  that  rapidity  which  turns  the 
head  of  the  spectator,  and  is  considered  by  the  devout 
as  the  state  most  favourable  to  holy  inspiration.  There 
were  several  austere  old  Turks,  and  some  members  of 
die  Sultan's  household,  among  the  spectators ;  and  all 


280  TUBKBT  AND  ITS  DBSTIOTf.  Chap.  XXT. 

these  individuals  w^re  known  enemies  to  what  is  called 
reform*  As  usual,  a  great  many  Christian  Armenians 
were  assembled  in  the  Teke,  We  gave  the  old  door- 
and-shoe-keeper  a  five-piastre  piece,  and  he  in  return 
gave  us  a  pressing  invitation  to  repeat  our  visit  fre- 
quently. On  the  following  Tuesday,  Abdul  Medjid  was 
at  the  Tek^  vrith  some  of  the  greatest  of  his  Pashas. 
He  stayed  a  long  time  in  close  conference  with  the 
Sheik,  or  head  of  the  house,  a  very  aged  little  man»  who 
was  regarded  by  the  devout  portion  of  the  Mussulmans 
as  a  living  saint,  and  who  was  so  quiet  and  good  and 
kind  to  all  men,  that  he  was  much  respected  even  by 
Christians  and  Jews.  From  the  Tek^  the  Sultan  pro- 
ceeded through  the  Grande  Rue  de  Pera  to  visit  the 
Medical  School  at  Galata  Serai.  The  two  places  were 
not  much  above  half  a  mile  apart,  but  morally  they 
were  wide  asuader  as  the  opposite  poles !  At  Galata 
Serai  nearly  everything  was  an  innovation,  and  almost 
everything  an  attack  on  the  prejudices  of  the  people. 
There,  against  the  law  of  the  Prophet,  they  opened  and 
dissected  human  bodies ;  and  the  place  had  acquired  a 
reputation  for  irreligion  which  I  afterwards  found  to  be 
well  merited.  At  the  Teki  of  the  dervishes  all  was  old 
and  orthodox,  and  thoroughly  Turkish.  The  Sultan 
was  constantly  balancing  matters  in  this  way-^^mpU- 
menting  old  prejudices  before  venturing  to  visit  and 
aj^laud  the  new  institutions.  He  would  on  no  account 
have  gone  to  the  new  School  oS  Medicine  without  pre- 
viou/Bly  going  to  the  old  house  of  the  dancing  dervishes. 
The  compromise  may  have  passed  with  the  unthinking 
mob  of  Turks,  but  it  was  severely  criticised  by  men  of 

coedition*--the  Old^School  Mussulmans  much 


Chap.  XXL     SULTAH  YISTTS  DAIIGINQ  BKBTISHSS.  231 


censuriiig  him  for  goii^  to  Galata  Serai,  and  die  New 
School  blaming  him  for  visiting  the  Teke.  One  of  die 
latter  said,  ''The  Court  is  always  involving  itself  in 
contradictions.  Tekes  and  Colleges  cannot  exist  and 
prosper  together.  Anatomy  and  twirling  are  oppositea* 
Every  visit  the  Sultan  pays  to  these  dervishes  is  an  en* 
couragement  to  the  ancient  superstition,  and  a  disooo- 
ragement  of  the  sciences  which  we  are  trying  to  intro- 
duce. If  the  xealots  who  are  constant  attendants  at  the 
Teke  could  have  their  way,  they  would  bum  Galata 
Serai  and  all  its  professors."  We  again  saw  Abdul 
Medjid  as  he  came  this  Tuesday  morning  out  of  the 
Teke.  He  looked  very  thin,  sallow,  and  sickly ;  and  it 
seemed  to  be  with  difficulty  that  he  mounted  a  tall, 
heavy,  under-bred  horse. 

On  another  Tuesday,  in  the  month  of  February,  it 
was  announced  that  the  Sultan  was  coming  up  to  visit 
the  dancing  dervishes  with  unusual  state.  He  was  pre- 
ceded by  a  regiment  of  the  imperial  guard,  who  formed 
in  line  on  either  side  the  narrow  filthy  street  Com- 
mander Lynch,  of  the  United  States*  navy,  who  was 
then  going  to  make  his  curious  survey  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
which  had  never  been  surveyed  before,  had  come  up 
from  Smyrna  to  obtain  the  necessary  finnan  of  the 
Sultan,  and  had  brought  five  of  his  officers  with  him — 
good-natured,  inquisitive  young  men,  who  were  eager 
to  get  a  glance  of  Constantinople  and  all  its  glories* 
As  our  windows  commanded  a  view  of  the  Tek^  and 
its  approaches,  they  assembled  at  Tonco's,  and  at  ihe 
proper  time  we  went  together  to  the  paved  courtyard 
of  the  Teke,  and  there  waited  among  the  crowd.  Some 
of  the  imperial  guard,  commanded  by  a  black  officeft 


232  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

were  doing  the  duty  of  policemen  in  the  court,  and 
keeping  back  the  crowd  so  as  to  allow  a  broad  avenue 
for  the  Sultan  and  his  courtiers.  They  did  this  duty 
very  rudely  and  very  awkwardly.  They  were  con- 
stantly using  their  hands,  which  a  soldier  never  ought 
to  use.  The  American  officers  were  all  in  uniform,  and 
their  neatness  and  smartness  presented  a  striking  con- 
trast to  the  dusty,  dirty,  slovenly  appearance  not  only 
of  the  officers  of  the  Sultan  s  guards,  but  also  of  his 
great  Fashas.  One  of  the  Turkish  clowns,  bare-necked, 
slipshod,  and  absolutely  filthy  in  his  attire,  laid  his 
broad  paw  on  the  breast  of  one  of  Captain  Lynch's 
officers  to  thrust  him  still  farther  back.  The  blood 
came  to  the  young  American's  face.  For  a  moment  I 
thought  we  should  have  a  scene,  and  that  he  would  have 
knocked  the  fellow  down*  It  was  of  no  use  speaking  to 
the  ugly  Nubian  officer,  who  had  evidently  no  more 
manners  than  his  man,  and  knew  just  as  little  the  respect 
due  to  a  uniform.  Luckily  Abdul  Medjid  did  not  keep 
us  long  waiting.  He  was  met  at  the  gate  as  he  alighted 
from  his  horse  by  the  old  green-robed  Sheik.  He  walked 
up  the  avenue  towards  a  staircase  which  leads  to  the 
Sheik's  private  apartment,  preceded  by  some  of  his 
household,  and  followed  by  some  of  the  greatest  officers 
of  the  state,  having  on  his  left  hand  the  Sheik,  who 
carried  a  small  silver  encensoivy  in  which  perfumes  were 
burning.  All  the  Americans  were  eager  to  see  the  great 
Eastern  potentate.  "  Which  is  the  Sultan  ?  Which  is 
the  Sultan  ? "  I  could  not  pointy  but  I  explained  by 
words.  Captain  Lynch  was  astonished.  ^'  That  shabby- 
looking  man  in  the  skuU-cap  and  plain  blue  mantle,  the 
Sultan  I"     One  of  the  Lieutenants  said  that  he  looked 


Chap.  XXL  SULTAN  ABDUL  MEDJID.  233 

like  a  New  York  Jew  in  bad  Iiealdi.  Ano&er  of  tbe 
party,  a  handsome  young  midshipman,  who  had  not 
understood  my  words,  and  who  ooukl  not  for  his  life 
conceive  Uiat  any  man  in  the  procession  which  had 
passed  ns  coold  possibly  be  the  Ottoman  Emperor,  stood 
stretching  his  neck,  and  gating  towards  the  gate,  in  ex 
pectation  of  some  splendid  apparition  of  robes,  turbans, 
ostrich  plumes,  and  dazzling  jewels^  several  seconds  after 
the  Padishah  had  disappeared  within  the  apartment  of 
the  Sheik.  When  told  that  if  he  had  watched  the  pro- 
cession, he  must  have  seen  Abdul  Medjid — ^that  he  who 
had  walked  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Sheik  was  the  very 
Sultan — his  surprise  and  exclamations  were  amusing; 
and,  indeed,  a  more  pitiiul  appearance  could  not  have 
been  made  than  by  the  Padishah  and  his  suite.  This 
morning  he  halted,  and  almost  staggered,  as  he  walked 
the  few  yards  which  intervened  between  the  gate  and 
the  stairs.  One  of  the  o£Bcers  said  that  he  looked  like 
a  man  who  had  taken  *'  too  much  "  last  night. 

There  was  a  prevalent  report  that  Abdul  Medjid  had 
addicted  himself  to  the  vice  which  had  killed  his  father ; 
but  I  was  assured  by  some  who  knew  the  truth,  if  they 
chose  to  teU  it,  that  he  drank  neither  wine  nor  spirits. 
As  to  the  other  cause  of  debility  and  premature  decay, 
I  never  heard  a  doubt  expressed  about  that  Some  said 
that  he  was  subject  to  epileptic  fits ;  and  his  whole  a|H 
pearance  certainly  went  to  confirm  rather  than  shake 
this  assertion.  Still,  however,  his  countenance  was  most 
gentle  and  prepossessing.  I  pitied  him  as  I  thought  of 
the  accursed  system  of  Oriental  life  into  which  he  had 
been  initiated  as  a  mere  boy,  and  from  which  there  was 
not  the  slightest  hope  that  he  ever  would  or  could  free 


234  TUBKET  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXL 

himself.  Before  he  was  twenty  years  old,  the  puny 
stripling  was  the  father  of  eight  children,  borne  to  him  by 
different  women  in  the  imperial  harem,  in  the  course  of 
little  more  than  three  years !  Of  his  younger  brother, 
Abdul  Haziz,  who  will  be  his  successor,  nothing  was 
ever  seen  or  heard.  He  was  a  mere  state  prisoner, 
closely  shut  up  in  a  harem,  like  the  princes  of  the  blood 
in  the  old  times,  or  before  reform  and  Beschid  Pasha 
were  things  known  or  spoken  of.  At  first  there  were  a 
few  flourishes  in  the  newspapers  about  this  '*  excellent 
and  enlightened"  young  prince,  and  of  the  affection 
which  existed  between  him  and  his  imperial  brother ; 
and  the  visits  which  the  Sultan  paid  to  his  state  prison 
were  pompously  inserted  in  the  Court  intelligence  ;*  but 
this  had  ceased  long  ago,  and  the  name  of  the  captive 
was  now  never  mentioned.  He  might  have  been  dead 
and  buried,  and  yet  not  more  completely  forgotten.  A 
very  different  line  of  conduct,  in  his  regard,  was  recom- 
mended by  some  who  believed  in  the  practicability  of 
reform,  and  in  the  sincerity  of  th^  intention.  These 
advisers  thought  that  the  time  had  come  for  changing 
the  whole  serraglio  system ;  and  that  the  best  pledge  that 
could  be  given  to  the  world  of  improvement  and  ad- 
vancement in  humanity  and  civilization,  would  be  to 
adopt  this  change.  Let  there  be  no  more  imprison- 
ments of  the  princes  of  the  blood,  no  more  barbarous 
murders  of  the  male  children  of  the  sisters  or  of  the 
brother  of  the  Sultan,  and  the  nations  of  Christendom 
would  cease  to  regard  the  Ottoman  court  with  an  in- 
voluntary horror.  The  thinking  part  of  Europe  would 
not  believe  that  Turkey  was  in  the  fair  road  of  reform 
so  long  as  this  revolting  system  obtained.     Destroy  it^ 


•1 


Cbap.  XXI.    SULTAN-B  BBOTHEB,  ABDUL  HAZIZ.  235 

and  you  remoye  a  most  pernicious,  demoralizing  ex- 
ample at  home ;  live  like  the  royal  families  of  £urope, 
and  tiiey  will  really  admit  your  pretensions  to  be  classed 
among  civilized  princes.  You  cannot  quote  the  passage 
in  the  Koran  that  recommends  the  immuring  of  the 
Sultan's  brother,  or  diat  enjoins  the  horrible  infanti- 
cide you  practise !  You  can  make  the  change  with- 
out  infrin^  one  single  positive  law  of  the  Prophet  I 
Language  like  this  was  held  to  several  of  the  leading 
reformea^  and  to  men  in  the  highest  offices.  I  believe 
that  a  distinguished  diplomatist,  a  thoroughly  right- 
hearted  and  high-minded  gentleman,  and  the  sincerest 
friend  the  Turks  have  ever  had  in  diplomacy,  had 
spoken  in  this  strain  to  Beschid  Pasha ;  and  that  to  the 
Sultan's  own  ears  he  had  given  a  gentle  recommenda- 
tion that  his  unoffending,  unfortunate  brother  should  be 
set  at  liberty,  and  allowed  at  least  to  live  like  other 
Mussulmans.  It  was  not  indispensable  that  this  brother 
should  hold  any  military  rank  or  command;  but  he 
ought  to  live  among  men,  and  not  among  eunuchs  and 
slaves  and  women.  He  might  be  sent  to  travel  in 
Europe,  which,  besides  producing  other  beneficial  effects, 
would  form  and  enlarge  his  mind,  and  fit  him  for  the 
duties  of  government  If  the  Sultan  were  to  die  to- 
morrow, and  were  even  to  leave  a  dozen  of  male  chil- 
dren, his  poor  brother  would  be  brou^  firom  his  state 
prison,  aad  put  upon  the  throne.  How  fit  would  the 
captive  be  to  reign  ?  What  knowledge  of  the  ways  of 
.  men,  what  aptitude  for  reform,  what  energy  would  he 
bru^  out  of  that  latticed  harem  ? 

I  found  that  there  existed  in  some  quarters  a  vague 
idea  of  Abdul  Ham  being  a  much  handsomer  and 


236  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

cleverer  man  than  his  brother  Abdul  Medjid ;  but  people 
are  always  apt  to  praise  the  unknown  at  the  expense  of 
the  known,  and  to  give  a  blind  expectant  preference 
over  the  reigning  prince  to  his  untried  presumptive  heir. 
These  people  had  no  intercourse  with  the  state  prisoner ; 
they  had  never  seen  him  since  the  death  of  his  father 
Mahmoud,  when  he  was  about  thirteen  years  of  age, 
and  they  had  not  seen  him  often  during  the  lifetime  of 
that  Sultan* 

Among  the  thousand  mystifications  which  have  been 
resorted  to  since  the  beginning  of  Reform,  attempts 
have  been  made  to  conceal  or  deny  the  damnable  fact 
that  all  male  children  of  the  Sultanas  are  destroyed. 
The  barbarous,  the  execrable  practice,  which  is  alto- 
gether contrary  to  the  Koran,  is  still  carried  into  effect 
with  merciless,  unrelenting  exactitude.  This  has  been 
explained  in  a  recent  English  work,*  but  superficial, 
careless  readers  do  not  seem  to  be  aware  of  it.  The 
atrocious  details  ought  to  be  repeated,  for  the  govern- 
ment and  the  people  of  England  ought  to  know  fiilly 
what  system  it  is  we  are  boktering  up  in  Hxe  East 

Some  time  before  the  death  of  the  late  Sultan 
Mahmoud  all  Constantinople  rang  with  this  horrible 
story. — ^His  eldest  and  favourite  daughter,  the  ^^  Sun- 
and-Moon  Sultana"  (Mihr-ou-Mah  Sultana),  was  mar- 
ried to  the  handsome  Said  Pasha,  who  had  risen  fi*om 
the  lowest  to  the  highest  rank.  Aware  that  nothing 
could  save  her  offipring,  if  a  male,  firom  the  common 
doom,  and  thinking  to  please  her  &ther  Mahmoud,  the 
young  princess,  resolving  to  destroy  her  infimt  before  it 

*  *  Three  Years  in  Constantinople ;  or,  Domestio  Manners  of  the  Turks 
in  1844/  by  Charles  White,  Esq.,  vol  i.  pp.  321—^26. 


Chap.  XXI.         MUKDERS  OP  MALE  INFANTS.  237 

saw  the  light,  placed  herself  in  lihe  hands  of  one  of  the 
many  heU-dames  who  practise  the  art  to  which  I  haye 
so  repeatedly  alluded.  I  have  said  that  the  healdi  is 
often  destroyed  by  these  hags,  but  here  life  itself  was 
destroyed — a  twofold  murder  was  committed.  The 
constitution  of  the  Sultana  was  too  weak,  or  the  potion 
too  strong — Mihr-ou-Mah  died  in  horrible  convulsions. 
When  the  whole  of  the  case  was  reported  to  him, 
Sultan  Mahmoud,  iron-hearted  as  he  was,  wept  like  a 
child,  and  for  a  long  time  he  would  not  be  comforted. 
It  was  said  that  in  the  first  paroxysm  of  his  grief  he 
most  solemnly  swore  that  no  more  lives  should  be  thus 
sacrificed ;  but  he  soon  followed  his  daughter  to  the 
grave  and  no  alteration  was  made — ^not  of  the  law,  for 
it  was  no  law,  but  an  abomination  contrary  to  all  law — 
but  in  the  adet  or  custom.  This  tragedy  was  the 
theme  of  conversation  in  every  Christian  embassy  at 
Pera  in  the  year  1839.  In  the  year  1842,  Ateya  (the 
Pure)  Sultana,  another  daughter  of  Mahmoud  and  half- 
sister  of  Abdul  Medjid,  who  had  become  the  wife  of 
Halil  Pasha,  was  declared  enceinte.  She  had  pre- 
viously been  delivered  of  a  male  child,  and  the  child 
had  been  murdered.  Then,  the  young  mother  had 
nearly  gone  mad;  now,  she  hoped  and  prayed  for 
female  ofispring — for  a  daughter  whom  she  might  nurse 
at  her  breast  and  rear  and  love.  But,  a  second  time, 
she  gave  birth  to  a  son,  a  fine  healthy  child.  Her 
husband  Halil,  high  in  office  and  in  Court  favour, 
borrowed  large  sums  from  the  Armenian  serafis  and 
distributed  the  money  among  those  who  were  con- 
sidered most  influential  in  tim  strangely  and  infamously 
constituted  Court ;  and  Ateya  was  a  favourite  of  her 


238  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

brother  the  Sultan  Abdul  M edjid,  as  also  of  his  mother 
the  Sultana  Yalide,  whose  influence  has  been  paramount 
at  Court  ever  since  her  son's  accession.  The  strongest 
representations  were  made  of  the  disgust  and  horror 
excited  in  Christendom  by  these  infanticides.  As  the 
young  Sultan's  throne  was  tottering;  as  the  Empire 
would  have  been  wrested  from  him  at  the  time  of  his 
father's  death  by  the  conquering  Ibrahim  Pasha  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  prompt  succour  of  England ;  as 
there  was  now  not  a  month's  security  for  the  integrity 
of  that  Empire  except  in  the  alliance  and  support  of 
England,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  would  it  not  be  wise  to 
put  an  end  to  a  crying  sin,  and  to  conciliate  the  respect 
and  affection  of  those  great  Christian  powers  ? 

The  word  went  forth  from  the  recesses  of  the  imperial 
harem  that  the  child  of  Ateya  should  live.  For  two 
days  and  nights  the  fond,  happy  mother  suckled  the 
babe  at  her  breast,  but  upon  her  awaking  on  the  third 
morning,  and  calling  for  her  boy,  her  women  burst  into 
tears,  and  said  the  babe  had  died  in  convulsions  during 
the  night.  She  saw  and  felt  the  cold  corpse,  she  fell 
into  a  delirium,  and  then  into  a  mortal  languor ;  and 
on  the  seventy-fifth  day  her  remains  were  deposited  in 
the  glittering  white  marble  mausoleum  of  her  fsither 
Sultan  Mahmoud.  The  child  had  been  murdered  like 
its  elder  brother.  But  as  the  tale  was  still  more  hor^ 
rible  than  that  of  Mihr-ou-Mah  Sultana,  extraordinary 
efforts  were  made  to  mystify  the  European  embassies, 
and  more  especially  to  persuade  the  British  Ambassador 
that  the  child  had  died  a  natural  death.  If  Sir  Stratford 
Canning  was  deceived,  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the 
deception  did  not  last  long.  And  does  not  Sir  Stratford 


Chap.  XXI.       TOMB  OF  MURBEBED  GHILDBEN.   ;  239 

well  know  that  tbe  other  brothers-in-law  of  Ihe  Sultan 
have  no  male  children,  and  that  not  a  single  male  infiint 
born  of  any  Sultana  has  survived  its  birth  beyond  a  few 
hours  ?  If  in  the  case  of  the  child  of  Ateya  Sultana 
the  hours  were  prolonged  to  two  days,  ^^  was  not  the 
deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off**  the  deeper?  Was 
not  the  agony  of  the  babe's  mother  the  greater  ?  Can 
the  human  mind  conceive  a  fate  more  terrible  than  that 
of  the  young  and  gentle  Ateya  ? 

The  second  time  that  I  was  with  the  burly  Achmet 
Fethi  Pasha  these  foul  and  most  unnatural  tragedies 
flashed  across  my  mind.  Here  was  I  sitting  close  by 
the  side  of  a  father  bound  to  murder  his  own  offipring, 
or  to  be  a  tacitly  consenting  party  to  such  horrors. 
The  thought  made  me  sick  at  heart,  and  I  could  not 
get  rid  of  it  until  I  was  oat  of  that  room,  and  threading 
my  way  through  the  narrow,  crooked,  crowded,  filthy 
streets  of  Tophana — an  operation  which  always  required 
my  undivided  attention. 

The  two  murdered  male  infants  of  Ateya  Sultana 
and  Halil  Pasha  lie  buried  in  a  beautiful  little  Tourb^ 
or  mausoleum  in  the  holy  suburb  of  Eyoub,  which  now, 
as  twenty-years  ago,  I  found  to  be  the  most  picturesque, 
the  most  romantic,  and  by  far  the  most  interesting 
place  in  c^  about  Constantinople.  In  the  lower  part, 
towards  the  head  of  the  Golden  Horn,  and  the  valley 
of  the  Sweet  Waters,  the  suburb  consists  of  streets  of 
tombs  and  burying  places,  intermixed  with  cypresses  and 
roses  and  other  flowers  and  flowering  shrubs :  it  is  all 
and  always  silent  and  solitary:  turn  which  way  you 
will,  you  see  nothing  but  the  memorials  of  the  dead. 
On  one  of  the  very  first  fine  da]/^  of  spring  we  spent  a 


240  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

whole  morning  among  those  tomhs.  Many  which  were 
new  or  most  carefully  kept  in  the  summer  of  1828  were 
now  soiled  and  neglected ;  but  there  were  very  many 
which  had  been  recently  erected,  and  these  were  most 
carefully  and  scrupulously  tended,  the  marble  being  as 
white  and  pure  as  when  taken  from  the  quarry,  and  the 
long  gilded  inscriptions  shining  out  in  the  sun  like  waving 
lines  of  newly  burnished  gold.  These  had  been  erected 
by  families  now  in  favour  and  power.  Let  a  few  short 
years  pass,  and  the  greatness  of  these  families  will  have 
vanished,  and  these  fair  tombs  will  be  as  much  neglected 
as  their  neighbours.  Nothing  so  transitory  as  family 
greatness  in  Turkey ;  and  when  a  family  decays,  there 
is  now  no  reliance  on  the  Ulema  and  Vakouf.  We  found 
the  mausoleum  of  the  infants  of  Ateya  in  the  longest 
of  these  streets  of  tombs,  at  the  comer  of  another  and 
much  shorter  street  which  descended  to  the  bank  of  the 
Golden  Horn.  These  tourbes  have  been  very  fre- 
quently described:  every  reader  will  remember  that 
they  are  built  like  chapels,  that  they  are  rather  cheer- 
iul  than  gloomy  in  their  appearance,  and  that  broad 
grated  windows  allow  the  passer-by  a  full  and  clear 
view  of  the  interior.  This  particular  tourbe  is  rather 
small,  but  being  new,  it  was  rather  neat  and  pretty.  A 
few  China  roses,  bearing  their  earliest  flowers,  bloomed 
outside  the  marble  walls.  In  the  interior,  the  two  mur- 
dered innocents  lay  side  by  side,  under  coffin-shaped 
sarcophagi  of  miniature  dimensions;  each  sarcophagus 
was  covered  with  a  rich  Cashmere  shawl,  and  had  at 
its  head  a  tiny  scarlet  fez,  with  its  pendent  tassel  of 
blue  silk.  As  we  were  looking  at  these  objects  through 
the  grated  windows,  our  Perote  guide  and  servant  told 


Chap.  XXI.  HAUI.  PASHA,  241 

over  again  the  horrible  story  of  the  murder  of  the  in- 
fitnts  and  the  death  of  their  mother,  adding,  in  true 
Ferote  fashion,  many  mysterious  and  undiscoverable 
details,  with  sundry  circumstantial  accounts  of  (by  me) 
indescribable  atrocities.  As  we  turned  down  the 
shorter  street,  we  saw,  at  the  distance  of  only  a  few 
yards  from  the  mausoleum,  Halil  Pasha,  the  father  of 
the  two  murdered  infants.  He  crossed  our  path  rather 
rapidly,  being  followed  by  a  servant,  and  three  or  four 
dirty  soldiers  of  the  Sultan's  marine.  Halil,  now  Capi- 
tan  Pasha,  was  going  to  visit  a  rope-walk  and  some  very 
unhealthy  marine  barracks  which  lie  on  the  edge  of 
Eyoub.  Beturping  thence,  he  passed  by  the  graves  of 
his  infants.  He  stopped — ^he  entered  the  mausoleum. 
Having  made  a  circuit,  we  returned  to  the  spot  when  he 
had  been  within  for  some  minutes.  The  interior  was 
no  longer  visible :  the  blinds  had  been  let  down  behind 
the  grated  windows.  What  he  did  in  that  home  of  the 
dead  we  know  not — we  hurried  on — but  I  hope  he 
knelt  and  prayed.  We  had  just  entered  our  caique, 
and  had  pulled  a  few  yards  from  tiie  shore,  when  Halil 
Pasha,  looking  grim  and  sad,  came  down  to  his  twelve- 
oared  barge  to  return  to  tiie  Arsenal.  His  boat  shot 
past  us:  he  was  sitting  in  the  stern-sheets,  and  was 
looking  more  gloomy  than  death — far  more  gloomy 
than  death  ever  looked  among  the  cypresses  and  roses, 
the  gilded  tombstones,  and  the  marble  mausoleums  of 
fair  and  holy  Eyoub.  He  took  no  notice  of  our  saluta- 
tion. Although  we  were  within  a  few  feet  of  him,  I 
fancy  he  did  not  see  us ;  I  believe  he  saw  nothing  of  all 
the  objects  which  were  crowding  that  most  glorious  port. 
Among  the  things  which  I  shall  remember  until  my 

VOL.  n.  R 


242  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.  Chap.  XXI. 

dying  hour  is  the  aspect  of  Halil  Pasha,  the  widower  of 
Ateya  Sultana,  after  the  visit  to  the  tomb  of  his  mur- 
dered  infants  at  Eyoub. 

While  we  were  in  the  country,  or  between  the 
month  of  August,  1847,  and  June,  1848,  the  Sultan 
had  four  children,  whose  births  were  announced  to  the 
world  by  tremendous  and  long-repeated  discharges  of 
artillery.  The  weakness  and  unhealthiness  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  imperial  harem  is  notorious ;  three  of  these 
infants  died  before  they  were  a  month  old :  one  of  them 
died  Hbefore  the  French  editor  of  the  Journal  de  Con- 
stantinople could  set  up  in  type  the  magnificent  phrases 
he  had  written  about  its  birth.  I  have  noted  in  my 
diary,  on  Saturday  the  22nd  of  April,  1848: — "Very 
early  in  the  morning  we  are  started  out  of  our  sleep  by 
a  tremendous  firing  of  salutes.  The  Sultan  has  another 
son.  Only  last  week  he  had  another  daughter  I  These 
salutes  for  the  male  child  will  be  repeated  five  times 
a-day  for  seven  days :  for  a  female  child  they  keep  up 
the  salutes  only  three  days.  Prodigious  is  the  quantity 
of  gunpowder  thus  consumed.  Each  salute  is  fired  not  by 
one^but  by  a  dozen  batteries.  Hark !  They  are  blazing 
away  at  the  artillery-barracks  above  us,  and  at  the 
Arsenal  below  us,  down  at  Tophana  and  over  at  the  Ser- 
r£^lio  Pointy  across  the  Bosphorus  at  Scutari,  and  up 
the  Bosphorus  from  the  fleet,  from  the  castles  of  Ma- 
homet II.,  and  from  heaven  knows  how  many  l^atteries 
besides  I  All  Pera  shakes  I  The  glass  rattles  in  our 
window-frames.  Crash !  crash  I  One  might  tliink  that 
Pera  was  bombarded."  And  for  seven  long  days  did 
this  blazing  and  roaring  continue.  I  was  far  from  Eng- 
land when  London  rejoiced  for  Wellington's  crowning 


Chap.  XXI.    BIRTHS  IN  ABDUL  MEDJID'S  HAREM.  243 

glory  of  Waterloo;  but  I  well  remember  our  firing 
for  the  victories  of  Salamanca,  Yittoria,  and  the  Fyre^ 
nees.  Firing  I  That  was  mere  pop-gun  and  pateraro 
work  compared  with  these  prolonged  explosions  for  the 
birth  of  the  sickly  infant  of  Abdul  Medjid !  The  powder 
manufactured  for  the  government  by  the  Armenian 
Dadians  is  almost  entirely  consumed  in  this  way,  or  in 
firing  salutes  on  every  Friday  when  the  Sultan  goes  to 
mosque.  The  £sur  greater  part  of  it  is  good  for  no 
other  purpose.  The  atmosphere  was  scarcely  fireed 
fix,m  the  odour  of  the  charcoal  and  villainous  saltpetre 
ere  the  boy  died.  This  was  in  April :  as  we  were  descend- 
ing the  Mediterranean  to  Italy  in  the  month  of  July,  we 
were  told  that  two  children  (not  twins)  had  been  borne 
unto  the  Sultan  on  one  day  and  at  nearly  the  same 
hour.  I  know  not  whether  these  two  survive ;  but  in 
all  probability  they  do  not.  The  puniness  of  this 
accelerated  offspring  is  not  likely  to  be  remedied  by 
care  and  affection :  if  females,  they  are  but  little  con- 
sidered ;  if  males,  they  are  apt  to  be  regarded  as  an 
**  inconvenient  multiplication  of  legitimate  heirs,  **  *  for, 
whether  the  birtib  of  one  of  the  seven  Kadinns  or  of  one 
of  the  innumerable  slaves  of  the  harem,  they  are  all 
held  to  be  legitimate.     The  forced  abortions,  now  so 

*  Charles  WMte,  Esq.,  'Thiec  Tears  in  Constajitmople.' 
This  writer,  who  took  unusual  pains  to  obtain  accurate  information^  says 
that  the  foul  expedient  of  forced  abortion  is  often  resorted  to  as  well  in  the 
imperial  harem  as  in  private  families.  After  the  statem^its  I  have  D:uule, 
few  will  believe  that  my  account  of  the  prevalence  of  the  horrible  practice 
requires  any  confirmation.  It  is,  however,  fully  confirmed  by  Mr.  White. 
That  gentleman  adds  : — 

"  It  is  notorious  that  sundry  women  gun  their  livelihood  by  preparing 
drugs  calculated  to  destroy  life  in  the  germ,  while  others  enjoy  a  most 
unholy  reputation  for  their  skill  in  producing  still  births,  even  at  the 
moment  of  travail.** — See  vol.  iii.  p.  19. 

b2 


244  TURKEY  Airo  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

prevalent  among  the  common  people,  were  not  unknown 
in  former  times  in  the  imperial  serraglio ;  and  the  in- 
fanticide of  males  was  often  resorted  to  when  the  reign- 
ing Sultan  had  two  sons  that  were  healthy  and  likely  to 
live.  The  common  calculation  was  that  there  ought  to 
he  an  heir-apparent  and  an  heir-presumptive,  and  that, 
if  these  two  princes  were  hale  and  strong,  all  other  male 
children  were  but  a  useless  or  a  dangerous  surplusage. 
This  is  the  calculation  still!  The  old  courtiers,  the 
eunuchs,  the  women,  and  all  the  indescribable  elements 
of  this  unreformed,  unaltered,  and  uncountable  house- 
hold are  constantly  haunted  by  the  traditional  terror  of 
disputed  successions  and  intestine  wars ;  and,  in  their 
apprehension,  the  chances  of  such  catastrophes  are  besrt; 
prevented  by  keeping  down  the  living  number  of  male 
children.  Then,  the  mothers  of  the  first-born  princes 
entertain  a  dread  and  hatred  £^ainst  all  the  post  natL 
These  causes  have  aforetime  led  to  the  darkest  of 
Serraglio  crimes ;  and  they  are  as  strong  and  as  unre- 
strained now  as  they  were  at  any  time.  The  contem- 
plation is  horrible! 

I  have  hinted  more  than  once  that  the  Sultana 
Yalid^  or  mother  of  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  had  a 
powerful  influence  in  the  court  and  government  So 
great  was  her  sway  over  her  affectionate,  gentle,  and 
weak-minded  sou,  that  she  could  at  any  time  defeat 
whatever  project  was  displeasing  to  her  or  her  friends, 
and  change  ministers  and  high  functionaries  as  she 
chose.  This  woman  was  originally  a  pmrchased  Cir- 
cassian slave.  Her  harem  education  could  scarcely 
have  develo|yed  her  intellect  or  raised  her  moral  cha- 
racter.   Yet  the  Yalidd  had  her  good  qualities ;  like  her 


Chap.  XXI.  THE  SULTANA  VALIDB.  245 

son,  she  was  charitable  and  very  generous ;  and  her 
munificence  was  most  advantageously  displayed  in  the 
recent  erection  and  endowment  of  a  splendid  hospital 
for  the  poor  over  in  Constantinople.  Many  other  out- 
ward acts  betokened  goodness  of  heart,  if  not  soundness 
of  judgment  But,  by  universal  consent,  most  of  the 
intrigues  of  the  harem,  the  dismissal  of  one  minister 
and  the  recall  of  another,  the  capricious-looking  changes 
and  rechanges  in  all  the  offices  of  government,  and  the 
vacillations  between  the  new  reform  and  the  old  &na- 
ticism  were  attributed  to  her.  That  the  rival  of  Beschid 
Pasha,  the  active  Biza  Pasha,  a  remarkably  handsome 
man,  was  her  paramour,  and  had  been  such  ever  since 
the  death  of  Sultan  Mahmoud,  might  be  a  scandal, 
but  if  so,  it  was  certainly  a  scandal  in  which  everybody 
seemed  to  believe.  Beschid  Pasha's  friends  or  admirers 
were  constantly  quoting  this  liaison  as  the  source  of 
difficulty  and  embarrassment  to  his  government  The 
liberty  allowed  to  the  Sultana  Yalide  was  more  than 
suffi^nt  for  affording  her  the  opportunities  of  carrying 
on  such  an  intrigue.  She  went  and  came  as  she  chose ; 
she  had  her  separate  establishment,  her  separate  reve- 
nues, and  her  separate  treasurer  and  administrator ;  few 
women,  whether  Turkish  or  unrestrained  Christians, 
were  so  much  abroad  as  she  was ;  still  proud  of  her 
faded  beauty,  she  took  little  trouble  to  cover  her  face — 
I  believe  there  was  hardly  a  ghiaour  dwelling  in  Galata 
or  Pera  but  knew  her  face  and  person.  Then,  wherever 
there  is  an  inclination  so  to  use  them,  the  yashmac  and 
feridjee,  invented  by  jealousy,  are  the  best  of  all  covers 
fer  intrigue  ,and  clandestine  intercourse,  for  they  may 
be  so  disposed  over  the  bee  and  person  that  a  man  may 


246  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTENTY.  Chap.  XXI. 

meet  or  follow  in  the  streets  his  own  wife  without 
knowing  her.  Her  income  was  large,  her  household 
very  numerous,  and  devoted  to  her  on  account  of  her 
exceeding  liberality.  Her  neutralized  black  gentlemen 
in  embroidered  frockKX>at8  were  more  frequently  seen 
about  Constantinople  and  in  the  Christian  suburbs  than 
almost  any  other  class  of  officials.  It  had  been  found  in 
innimierable  cases  that  she  thought  and  acted  with  Biza 
Pasha,  making  his  cause  her  cause ;  and  that  no  party 
combbatioa  was  sto,ng  enough  to  stand  againsfS 
influence  she  exercised  over  her  son.  Biza's  proved 
iniquities  could  not  sink  him ;  he  floated  on  the  £sivour 
of  the  Yalide.  Sir  S.  Canning,  afker  a  long  struggle, 
succeeded  in  driving  Biza  from  power,  and  in  putting 
Beschid  in  his  place ;  but  Sir  Stratford  was  not  strong 
enough  to  obtain  the  punishment  and  disgrace  which 
Biza  had  well  merited,  or  to  stop  his  intrigues  and  com- 
manding influence,  or  to  prevent  his  being  a  constant 
thorn  in  the  side  of  Beschid.  During  his  long  absence  in 
Christendom,  the  cabinet,  which  he  may  be  said  to  have 
made,  was  sadly  weakened.  It  was  in  a  shattered  con- 
dition when  we  reached  Constantinople  in  August,  1847* 
Theriy  everybody  told  us  that  the  influence  of  Biza 
Pasha,  through  the  Sultana  Yalide,  was  daily  on  the 
increase,  and  that  if  Sir  Stratford  did  not  return  very 
shortly,  it  would  be  impossible  for  Beschid  to  keep  his 
ground.  During  the  whole  of  Sir  Stratford's  absence 
our  diplomacy  was  null.  Except  in  obtaining  the  seal 
of  the  Porte  to  one  or  two  measures  (not  of  national 
import)  which  Sir  Stratford  had  left  all  but  completed,  our 
legation  did  nothing  and  originated  nothing — it  was  idle 
and  without  weight     We  had  plenty,  or,  rather,  we  had 


V 


Chap,  XXI.  SIR  STBATFORD  CANNING.  247 

too  many  diplomatic  and  consular  £^ents ;  but  the  Turks 
never  look  to  men,  but  always  to  a  man,  or  tJie  man. 
"  The  man "  to  the  Turks  was  Sir  Stratford,  who  had 
been  on  so  many  missions  to  the  country,  who  had  lived 
so  long  in  it,  who  had  commenced  his  acquaintance  with 
it  thirty^ix  years  ago,  who  had  shrunk  with  a  true  old 
English  horror  firom  everything  that  wore  the  appear- 
ance of  an  intrigue,  and  who,  by  his  manly,  dignified 
bearing,  his  straightforwardness  in  all  things,  and  the 
purity  and  excellence  of  his  character,  had  secured  to 
himself  an  immense  moral  influence  in  this  den  of  vice 
and  corruption.  Even  if  Lord  Cowley  had  not  been 
in  constant  expectation  of  a  removal  from  his  post, 
he  could  have  done  very  little.  His  Lordship  was 
kind  to  me,  and  I  remember  him  with  kindness  and 
with  the  respect  due  to  his  name  and  rank.  I  mean  no 
disrespect  when  I  say  that  he  was  not  ^^  the  man "  for 
Turkey.  Indeed,  I  feel  confident  that  his  Lordship 
himself  would  be  one  of  the  first  to  concur  in  this  opi- 
nion. On  our  return  from  Asia  Minor  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1847  the  Reschid  Ministry  was  tottering  to  its 
fall.  Financial  difficulties  came  in  to  the  aid  of  the 
Court  intrigues  of  Riza  and  his  party.  The  Treasury 
was  exhausted  by  the  Sultan's  thoughtless  generosity,  by 
the  enormous  outlays  for  foreign  machinery  and  foreign 
workmen — (all  unproductive,  all  useless)-T-by  the  build- 
ing of  palaces,  kiosks,  and  m^ore  barracks,  by  the  con- 
struction of  war-ships  which  had  no  sailors  to  man  them ; 
and  by  the  maintenance  of  a  disproportionate  army  and  a 
very  unserviceable  fleet ;  and  yet  Abdul  Medjid's  passion 
of  liberality  would  not  be  rebuked — still  the  word  with 
him  was  Give  I   Give!   Give!     The  expenses  of  the 


248  TURKEY  ANP  ITS  DESTINY-  Chap.  XXI. 

circumcision-fegtival,  though  not  yet  all  paid,  had  been 
a  serious  drain,  having  amounted  to  more  than  half  a 
million  sterling ;  the  multiplicity  of  births  in  the  impe- 
rial harem  had  cost  immense  sums,  for  not  only  are 
magazines  of  gunpowder  emptied,'  but  on  such  happy 
occasions  an  infinitude  of  presents  must  be  made — ^for 
this  is  adet  Then  again  the  Sultana  Yalidfe  had  a 
dangerous  illness  and  a  recovery  considered  as  almost 
miraculous.  On  her  restoration  to  health  there  were 
other  and  innumerable  presents  to  be  made :  the  phy- 
sician-in-chief must  have  another  Nishan  set  with  dia- 
monds, a  new  stone  house,  and  1000/.  in  money;  the 
second  physician  must  have  10002.;  ihe  apothecary 
500Lj  the  apothecary's  assistant  2002. — ^not  even  the 
apothecary's  boy  who  carried  the  medicines  must  be 
forgotten,  he  must  have  50Z. ;  and  every  woman  that 
waited  upon  the  Yalid^  in  her  sickness,  and  every  male 
or  female  of  her  household,  must  have  something !  We 
might  have  admired  Abdul  Medjid's  filial  piety  and  his 
open-handedness»,  if  we  had  known  a  great  deal  less  of 
the  poverty  of  his  people  and  of  the  foul  means  by 
which  his  revenues  were  chiefly  raised.  As  it  was,  we 
could  not  help  associating  extortion  and  spoliation  with 
munificence  and  profiision — ^we  could  not  but  think  that 
if  the  kind-hearted  Sultan  could  see  with  his  own  eyes 
and  hear  with  his  own  ears  what  we  had  seen  and  heard 
in  Asia  Minor,  he  would  have  taken  pity  on  his  people 
and  have  saved  their  money.  Sarim  Pasha,  the  Minis- 
ter of  Finance,  who  had  been  for  some  time  Minister  Ple- 
nipotentiary in  London,  and  who  really  knew  something 
(though  not  much  )  of  finances,  or  at  least  of  accounts, 
took  the  alarm,  as  coffer  after  coffer  became  a  vacuum ; 


.^ig^amammmitmm^mmmi^'im^i^^mmm^mm         »  ip       h  ■   '  ^ •mmmmmmmtmumm^fmmmmKH 


Ceap.  XXL         TEDB  SULTAS^  PBODIGALITY.  249 

he  remonstrated ;  he  explained  the  necessity  of  conju- 
gating the  yeth  *' to  save"  instead  of  the  yerb  ^  to  givei'* 
bat  it  was  of  no  avail — he  only  made  himself  enemies 
at  GonrL  One  rough  day  in  the  month  of  April,  when 
the  imperial  Treasury  was  a  perfect  void,  old  Sarim 
came  to  a  desperate  resolution :  he  swore  he  would  re- 
sign without  permission  obtained  or  asked  for ;  he  swore 
that  he  would  no  longer  be  Minister  of  Finance  without 
any  finances  to  administer;  and,  quitting  his  office  intiie 
Serraglio,  he  went  home  to  his  own  house,  and  shut 
himself  up  in  it,  saying  that  the  Sultan  might  do  with 
him  what  he  liked,  but  that  to  the  Treasury  he  would 
never  return  I  In  the  course  of  that  afternoon  and 
evaiing  the  report  ran  through  all  Stamboul  and  its 
adjacencies  that  there  was  no  longer  a  Minister  of  Fi- 
nance, that  there  were  no  longer  any  finances !  The 
next  day  the  Sultan  called  into  his  own  presence  the 
Vizier  Reschid  Pasha,  Sarim  Pasha,  and  Bifat  Pasha, 
then  President  of  the  Council.  Abdul  Medjid,  though 
much  embarrassed,  showed  no  anger  against  Sarim,  who, 
for  a  certainty,  would  have  lost  his  head  if  Mahmoud 
had  been  Sultan.  He  proposed  an  arrangement  h 
raimable;  Sarim  and  Bifat  must  change  places,  and 
so  the  Cabinet  would  not  be  disturbed.  Sarim  gladly 
stepped  into  a  post  where  there  was  no  money  to  count 
and  next  to  nothing  to  do ;  and  Bifat,  who  had  pre« 
viously  filled  all  manner  of  places  requiring  very  dif* 
ferent  qualifications,  who  had  been  ex-officio  ^^  every- 
thii^  by  turns  and  nothing  long**  in  the  true,  unvaried 
Turkish  fashion,  who  thought  that  if  kismet  gave  him  any 
particular  place,  Jdamet  would  give  him  abo  the  qualities 
necessary  to  fill  it,  and  who  was  so  bold  and  enterprising 


250  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.  Chap.  XXI, 

a  man  as  not  to  be  deterred  even  by  Ike  awful  spectacle 
of  ^^  empty  boxes/'  became  Minister  of  Finance.  Some 
money  crept  in  from  the  proyinces,  and  other  sums  were, 
procured  from  the  Armenian  serafis ;  but  the  crisis  de- 
rtroyed  the  Vmer',  pr^;  ^  i.  .  .^  few  day 
Beschid  Pasha,  with  his  man  Friday  Ali  Pasha,  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Aflairs,  was  dismissed  upon  a 
pension.  Then  Biza  Pasha,  who  had  been  for  some  time 
doing  nothing  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  etCi 
was  restored  to  his  old  post  of  Seraskier  or  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  forces,  and  Sarim  Pasha,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  most  people  and  to  his  own  discontentment,  was 
made  Grand  Vizier !  These  changes  would  not  have 
taken  place  if  Sir  Stratford  Canning  had  been  at  hand. 
His  return  had  been  so  of);en  announced  and  so  strangely 
delayed,  that  the  Turks  began  to  think  he  would  not 
come  at  aU.  It  was  curious,  it  was  very  amusing  to 
wateh  the  effects  produced  by  his  gradual  approach 
when  it  really  took  place.  So  soon  as  it  was  known 
that  Sir  Stratford  was  fairly  on  his  journey,  Beschid's 
house  was  filled  with  visitors,  and  the  Journal  de  Con- 
stantinople dwelt  with  choice  phrases  upon  his  many 
excellent  qualities  and  the  respect  and  affection  the 
Sultan  bore  him.  When  it  became  known  that  Sir 
Stratford  was  really  at  Athens,  Beschid  was  reinstated 
in  the  Cabinet  without  a  portfolio,  and  when  Sir  Strat- 
ford had  been  only  a  few  weeks  at  Constantinople, 
Beschid  was  again  made  Grand  Vizier,  Ali  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  eto.  In  short,  all  that  had  been  done 
in  April  was  undone  in  June  and  July. 

Before  these  sudden  changes  were  effected,  but  not  be- 
fore I  saw  they  were  coming*  I  asked  a  man  of  the  country^ 


Chap.  XXI.  mNISTERIAL  CHANGES.  .  251 

an  experienced,  sensible,  acute  old  man,  Yfhat  he  thought 
of  them.  "  It  is  all  one,"  said  he ;  "  whether  Riza  is  up 
and  Reschid  down,  or  Biza  down  and  Reschid  up,  it  is  all 
the  same  to  the  country.  The  one  cannot  govern  worse 
than  the  other — or  better  I  Neither  of  them  can  be 
more  than  a  part  of  a  bad  and  complicated  machine. 
Neidier  of  them  can  alter  the  system  of  government, 
or  check  the  influence  of  the  Serraglio,  or  create  honesty 
and  good  faith  where  none  exist,  or  awaken  conscience 
in  men  who  have  no  conscience,  or  rouse  a  feeling  of 
honour  and  patriotism  in  men  who  never  knew  the 
meaning  of  such  words.  Sir  Stratford  Canning  will 
support  Reschid  because  he  believes  him  to  be  not  only 
the  better  Minister  of  the  two,  but  also  a  good  and 
honest  man.  Sir  Stratford  will  find  out  his  mistake. 
There  is  a  difference,  though  it  is  of  no  consequence  to 
us :  Reschid  has  more  of  what  is  called  enlightenment 
than  Riza :  Reschid  has  travelled  a  good  deal  in  Chris- 
tendom, has  resided  long  in  London  and  Paris ;  Reschid 
sometimes  reads  French  books.  He  is  a  man  of  quiet 
habits  and  decent  life,  and  not  a  rake  or  debauchee  like 
Riza.  Then,  while  Riza  is  accused  of  a  leaning  to 
Russia,  Reschid  professes  the  utmost  dread  and  hatred 
of  that  power.  There  has  not  been  an  hour  of  his 
public  life  in  which  Reschid  has  not  stood  in  awe  of  the 
Tzar*8  Ambassador,  and  has  not  been  nearly  as  compliant 
to  the  will  of  Russia  as  Riza  his  rival ;  but  where  he 
can  safely  parade  his  anti-Russianism,  he  has  done  it 
and  will  do  it  If  Sir  S.  Canning  has  a  fault  as  British 
Ambassador  in  this  place,  it  is  his  too  lively  jealousy  of 
Russia.  Some  people  call  it  his  Russo-phobia.  Reschid's 
professed  anti-Russianism  helped  him  far  on  in  the  good 


252  TUBKET  AND  ITS  DESTINT.  Chap.  XXI. 

graces  of  Sir  Stratford ;  but  let  the  great  crisis  come, 
and  it  now  seems  to  be'  coming*^ — your  excellent  Am- 
bassador will  find  that  Reschid  has  no  more  political 
principle  than  his  rival." 

Without  believing  a  tenth  part  of  the  stories  current 
in  Pera,  I  could  not  but  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
intrigue  and  dissoluteness  were  greatly  on  the  increase. 
The  use  of  the  bowstring  and  the  sack  had  been,  if  not 
entirely  abolished,  very  much  dimmished;  and  no  cor- 
rective had  been  introduced  to  supply  its  place.  The 
Greek  doctor  Faleologus  had  his  rivals  in  his  own  par- 
ticular line.  In  many  cases  the  atrocious  and  notorious 
vices  of  the  husbands  were  pleaded  as  extenuations  or 
even  justifications  of  the  frailties  of  these  Turkish  wives. 
The  modern  Parisian  brothel  literature  had  certainly 
contributed,  and  was  most  materially  contributing,  to 
the  spread  of  these  "  pleasant  vices.'*  The  women  did 
not  read  French — none  but  a  very  few  of  the  very 
highest  condition  could  read  Turkish,  or  tell  one  Arabic 
letter  from  anotiier — but  the  young  men  who  had  been 
educated  cdla  Francoj  the  prot6g6s  of  Reschid  Pasha, 
the  pupils  of  the  reform  school,  ^^  the  hopes  of  iihe 
country,**  all  read  French,  while  very  few  of  tibem  knew 
any  other  European  language.  I  have  noticed  in  an 
early  chapter  the  copious  importations  of  this  Parisian 
literature.    Moreover,  they  had  manufacturers  of  it  on 

*  This  conversation  took  plaoe  after  the  rerolutionary  fire,  kindled  at 
Paris  in  February,  1848,  had  spread  throughout  Italy  and  Germany.  We 
were  all  in  consternation  at  the  revolution  of  Vienna  and  the  alamung 
reports  received  from  Hungary,  Wallaohia,  and  Moldavia.  There  was  not 
a  man  in  Constantinople  who  had  an  opinion  that  was  not  fully  persuaded 
that  the  weakening  cf  the  Auatrian  empire  vfould  give  great  strength  and 
preponderance  to  Ruesia — thcU  one  of  the  great  sa/eguarde  <^  the  Ottoman 
empire  had  been  destroyed  by  the  Vienna  revolution. 


Chap.  XXL    FRENCH  LTTERATUBE  IN  TUBKEY.  253 

the  spot,  and  in  the  pay  of  government  I  remember 
few  instances  in  which  my  disg;i]st  was  more  Ihoroi^Uy 
excited  than  in  reading  the  account  which  a  Frenchman 
gave  in  the  Journal  de  Constantinople  of  the  adventures 
of  Faleologus  and  his  two  firail  Turkish  ladies.  It  would 
have  been  better  for  all  parties  to  have  passed  over  the 
subject  in  silence ;  but  as  the  great  scandal  had  made  a 
deal  of  noise,  this  very  moral  Frenchman  was  instructed 
to  mystify  the  transactions,  and  nuyroH^  upon  them. 
He  dwelt  upon  the  enormity  of  the  guilt  of  the  young 
Greek  doctor,  and  upon  the  exceeding  rarity  of  such 
offences  in  Turkey ;  whereas  it  is  not  the  offences  that 
are  rare,  but  only  the  detection  and  punishment  He 
contrasted  the  conjugal  virtues  of  the  Turks  with  the 
laxity  of  most  Christian  nations ;  and  after  speaking  of 
llie  universal  horror  and  indignation  of  the  Mussulmans 
at  the  almost  unprecedented  guilt  of  the  wives  of  the 
two  Effendis,  he  extolled  the  mercifiilness  of  the  govern- 
ment which  had  only  condemned  Faleologus  to  a  per- 
petual exile.  With  the  gravity  of  a  Mufti,  this  salaried 
scribbler  spoke  of  the  necessity  of  upholding  the  high 
and  strict  domestic  virtues  of  the  Turks  of  Constanti- 
nople !  And  this  very  journal  was  in  itself  an  incen- 
tive and  a  pander  to  vice.  After  the  fashion  of  Faris, 
it  published^  in  nearly  every  one  of  its  numbers,  a 
feuiUeton;  and  these  feuilletons  consisted  almost  ex- 
clusively of  tales  of  intrigue,  seduction,  adultery,  or 
double  adultery,  not  without  now  and  then  being  sea- 
soned  with  an  inftision  of  the  incestuous.  How  the 
bigoted  Fapists  of  Fera  admitted,  as  they  did,  such  a 
paper  into  their  houses,  or  what  effect  was  produced 
upon  their  wives  and  daughters  by  the  perusal  of  these 


264  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

hebdomadary  feuilletonSj  I  will  not  pause  to  inquire. 
I  am  speaking  of  Mussulman  and  not  Perote  morality. 
The  feuilktans  were  devoured  by  all  the  "  hopes  of  the 
country "  that  could  make  out  their  sense.  I  have  seen 
them  in  the  hands  of  the  yoimg  students  of  Galata 
Seraiy^of  the  young  officers  in  barracks,  of  the  young 
Turkish  hospital-mates  in  the  military  hospitals ;  I  have . 
seen  them  in  private  Turkish  houses ;  and  I  have  heard 
one  young  Mussulman  verbally  translating  them,  with 
great  glee  and  gusto,  to  his  comrades,  who  were  not  so 
happy  as  to  be  masters  of  that  only  medium  of  instruc- 
tion and  civilization,  the  French  language  I 

Better  no  books  at  all  than  bad  ones  ;*  but  without 
the  resource  of  books,  without  cultivation,  without  any 
mental  resources  whatsoever,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
how  the  wives  o£  the  great  Turks  get  through  the  four- 
and-twenty  hours.  In  some  harems,  as  /  knav  from 
candid  and  indisputable  sources,  they  spent  a  great  part 
of  the  day  in  eating  and  drinking,  in  making  coffee  and 
sherbets  and  sipping  them,  and  scolding  their  slaves  and 

smoking  their  pipes.     In  the  house  of Pasha, 

which  affected  to  be  considered  as  a  model  establish- 
ment, they  had  breakfast  (a  very  substantial  meal)  at 
about  1 1  o^clock  a.m.,  and  dinner  about  half  an  hour 
after  sunset.  When  the  Pasha  sat  down  to  table  in 
the  male  and  public  side  of  the  house,  the  meal,  in  most 
abundant  quantity,  was  sent  into  the  harem,  the  inmates 
of  which  were  far  from  being  numerous.  A  young  man, 
who  himself  had  a  very  good  appetite,  much  wondered 

*  I  am  frankly  and  honestly  stating  my  own  convictions,  but  am  not 
advancing  opinions  peculiar  to  myself.  Bishop  Southgate— like  every  one 
that  had  paid  attention  to  the  subject — ^was  persuaded  that  this  modem 
PaiiBian  literature  lay  at  the  root  of  the  prevalent  irreligion  and  immorality. 


Chap.  XXL  INMATES  OF  THE  HABEM.  255 

how  the  women  could  eat  all  that  was  thus  sent  them. 
Sut  long  beibre  break&st  the  co£fee-pot  was  at  work> 
and  sweetmeats  were  masticated ;  and  between  breakfast 
and  dinner  there  was  a  continuous  draught  made  by  the 
harem  upon  the  larder.     *'  No  wonder,**  said  my  in- 
formanty  ^^  that  they  grow  so  fat :  they  are  eating  all 
day  long  !**     When  the  harem  received  the  visits  of  the 
ladies  of  other  Pashas  or  Effendisy  the  larder  was  always 
invaded  by  clamorous  and  exorbitant  demands  for  pro- 
vend.    These  visits  were  rather  frequent :  at  times  there 
would  be  two  or  three  of  them  a-day.     Let  what  would 
go  into  the  harem,  nothing  ever  came  out  of  it  but  dean 
plates  and  dishes.    Though  no  male  foot  dared  to  cross 
the  threshold  of  the  harem,  or  even  to  enter  its  ante- 
room, the  thin  wooden  walls  and  plank  partitions  of  the 
house  allowed  the  voices  of  the  ladies  to  be  heard  in 
many  parts  of  it.    Now  and  theii  fragments  of  con- 
versation were  caught  that  did  not  sound  like  sermons 
or  homilies,  and  very  frequently  the  sharp  tones  of  the 
voices  gave  assurance  that  the  ladies  were  not  all  of  one 
mind.     The  senior  matron  occasionally  took  exercise 
by  belabouring  a  female  slave  with  her  slipper  or  pipe- 
stick,  and  by  uttering  objurgations  quite  as  foul  as  her 
lord*s  when  in  anger.     The  pretty  embroideries,  the 
worked  handkerchiefi,  the  elegant  turbans,  and  the  other 
specimens  of  needle  skill  which  charmed  Miss  Fardoe 
and  other  English  ladies,  are  nearly  all  purchased  in 
the  bazaars,  and  are  the  handiwork  not  of  Turkish  ladies, 
but  of  Armenian  men  and  womeji.     Such  of  the  fair 
ones  as  have  been  purchased  slaves — procured  in  their 
infancy  and  prepared,  or,  as  it  is  called,  "  educated  *' 
for  the  harems  of  rich  men-^seldom  know  more  than 


^   ^ _    -      l#i    '    ^^      -  "*-^"-'*^    *■  '      »ll^». 


256  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DBSTINy.  Chap.  XXI. 

how  to  season  a  dish,  mix  a  sherbet,  prepare  and  pre- 
sent a  pipe,  and  dance  a  lascivious  dance.  Nothing 
more  helpless  than  the  condition  of  these  women,  if,  in 
the  decline  of  life,  their  husbands  fall  into  disgrace,  or 
they  are  left  in  widowhood  and  poverty.  A  broken- 
down  small-footed  Chinese  dame  is  not  more  helpless  in 
the  streets  or  by  the  roadside,  than  are  these  Turkish 
ladies  in  all  the  affairs  of  life.  The  vicissitudes  of 
fortune,  the  instability  of  all  family  prosperity,  has  of 
late  years  afforded  most  abundant  evidence  of  this  help- 
lessness, by  casting  loose  upon  the  world  females  who 
had  enjoyed  all  the  luxuries  of  the  harems  of  the  once 
great  and  rich.  It  was  a  remark  made  to  me,  not  by 
one  but  by  several  Frank  ladies,  that  not  one  of  them 
knew  how  to  do  anything  for  herself;  that  they  knew 
not  how  to  fashion  or  even  to  sew  the  cloths  and  stuffi 
charitably  given  them  for  clothing ;  that  hardly  one  of 
them  knew  how  to  use  the  needle,  or  to  do  any  single 
thing  that  was  useful  or  necessary. 

I  would  repeat,  again  and  again,  that  this  seclusion, 
or  rather  separation  of  the  sexes  (for  the  women  are 
anything  rather  than  secluded),  is  incompatible  with 
any  real  advance  of  civilization ;  and  that  until  this  ae* 
cursed  harem  system  be  abolished  (of  which  there  is  not 
as  yet  the  slightest  sign),  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a 
hope  for  that  social  regeneration  without  which  Turkey 
must  perish  amidst  the  contempt  and  scorn  of  the  rest 
of  the  world.*     If  you  d^rade  woman,  you  d^;rad6 

*  It  IS  also  worthy  of  notice  that  the  Turks  do  not  shut  up  their 
female  children  in  the  harem  until  they  are  eleven  or  twelve  yean  old.  By 
nature  precocious,  they  are  at  that  age  young  women ;  and  up  to  that  age 
they  are  allowed  to  run  about  the  house  and  mix  with  the  men-servants. 
In  the  house  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  pashas  fhi&te  was  a  little  girl — 


Gbaf.  XXL  THE  HAREM  SYSTEM.  257 

the  mother  and  the  first  teacher  of  the  iiitare  man :  the 
demoralization  of  Uie  parent  tells  up<Hi  die  child.  The 
first  lessons  are  Uie  strongest  and  the  most  enduring  of 
all :  the  child  receives  his  first  education  in  the  harem, 
be  he  the  son  of  a  Sultan  or  the  son  of  the  poorest  of 
Turks;  and  what  are  the  lessons  he  gets  there,  from 
ignorant,  indolent,  and  sensual  women  ?  We  had  many 
opportunities  of  judging,  not  only  in  the  developed  man, 
but  also  in  the  growing  child.  The  ignorance  of  the 
women  is  very  naturally  allied  with  Turkish  pride  and 
Mussulman  bigotry,  and  there  is  nothing  new  in  a  loose 
code  of  morality  being  a  concomitant  of  fierce  fanaticism. 
In  Constantinople  we  often  met  some  young  Bey  or 
Beyzide  coming  out  of  his  father's  konack,  or  riding 
through  the  streets  on  his  Mitylene  pony,  dressed  in 
'  richly  embroidered  clothes,  and  attended  by  one  or  two 
male  Nubian  slaves  running  by  his  side  on  foot  I 
scarcely  remember  the  instance  in  which  one  of  these 
urchins  passed  us  without  muttering  coarsely  indecent 
language,  and  insulting  us  as  Christians  and  Franks. 
One  morning  I  was  almost  irritated  by  the  behaviour 
of  a  great  man's  son,  who  could  not  have  been  more 
than  ten  or  eleven  vears  old.  As  he  met  us  in  a  narrow 
street  he  spat  on  the  ground  right  before  me,  as  if  to 
avert  the  eflects  of  the  evil  eye  or  to  express  his  disgust 
at  the  sight  of  a  Christian  dog ;  and,  after  spitting,  he 
turned  his  face  from  us,  muttering  curses  between  his 
teeth,  and  rhetorically  defiling  our  mothers  and  grand* 

the  pafiha's  cmly  child— that  was  constantly  talking  and  playing  with  one 
of  those  gangs  of  slaves  and  servants  of  whose  morality  I  have  given  some 
notion.  She  was  dressed  like  a  boy,  and  for  some  time  I  took  her  for  one. 
She  was  eleven  years  old,  and  a  perfect  adept  in  obeoenity  and  in  foul 
langnage. 

VOL.  H.  8 


258  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

mothers,  our  wives  and  our  sisters ;  at  all  which  his  two 
hideous  Nubians  grinned  from  ear  to  ear,  and  laughed 
aloud.  One  of  my  companions,  who  was  acclimated  to 
this  insolence  and  obscenity,  said  that  it  was  only  a 
child ;  that  it  was  useless  to  take  any  notice  of  him ; 
that  he  was  only  repeating,  like  a  parrot,  what  he  had 
learned  from  the  women  in  the  harem ;  that  all  Turkish 
children  fresh  from  their  mothers  were  the  same  ;  and 
that  female  fanaticism  was  much  stronger  than  Tanzv- 
maiUj  which  had  prohibited  the  use  of  such  foul  lan- 
guage to  any  Christian.  We  were  in  a  Turkish  quarter, 
and  had  we  attempted  to  chastise  the  insolent  negroes, 
every  Turk  in  it  would  have  fallen  upon  us-  The 
full-grown  men,  who  have  been  beaten  into  civility, 
very  rarely  dared  to  outrage  a  Frank  in  this  manner  ; 
but  we  almost  universally  found  the  women  and  the 
children  disposed  to  be  insolent  and  abusive,  and  it 
was  very  seldom  indeed  that  they  were  checked  by 
the  men  or  even  by  the  soldiers  on  guard,  part  of 
whose  bounden  duty  it  was  to  preserve  the  peace,  and 
prevent  such  shameful  exhibitions.  I  could  multiply, 
ad  infinitum^  authentic  cases  that  would  show  the  hoi- 
lowness  of  the  pretension  to  civilization  and  tolerance 
set  up  by  the  reformers  of  the  day  for  the  moulder- 
ing rotten  capital  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  As  I 
have  previously  said,  the  old  leaven  of  fanaticism 
lurks  in  many  comers.  I  am,  however,  disposed  to 
believe  that  the  deep  sense  of  poverty  and  misery  has 
more  to  do  with  these  occasional  popular  outbreaks 
than  the  spirit  of  fanaticism.  The  Turks  hate  the 
Christians,  because  the  Christians,  of  whatsoever  nation 
or  grade — certainly  without  excepting  the  Christian 


Chap.  XXI.      PRIVATE  LIFE  OF  ABDUL  MEDJIDc  259 

Rayah  subjects — are  incomparably  more  prosperous  than 
themselves. 

Except  for  the  Friday  visits  to  the  mosques,  the 
Sultan,  during  our  long  stay  at  Constantinople,  very 
rarely  left  his  palace  at  Beshiktash.  I  will  not  pretend 
to  know  more  than  I  really  do  know  of  those  penetralia. 
Everybody  knew  that  his  harem  was  absolutely  crowded 
with  women,  and  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  his 
time  was  spent  in  it.  Most  of  the  very  great  Fashas 
spent  their  time  as  he  did,  and  were  keeping  their 
black  eunuchs,  just  as  their  predecessors  used  to  do 
twenty  years  ago.  The  gentlenessi  the  amiability  of 
Abdul  Medjid,  was  admitted  by  all.  Some  gave  him 
credit  for  a  very  considerable  share  of  quickness  and 
natural  ability  (which  his  comitenance  did  not  denote), 
regretting  at  the  same  time  his  indolence,  his  distrac- 
tions, and  his  premature  exhaustion.  A  person  had 
been  retained  more  than  ten  years  to  teach  the  Sultan 
French,  but  his  imperial  Majesty  could  not  as  yet  con- 
struct a  French  sentence.  For  music  he  had  a  perfect 
passion  and  a  very  good  taste.  His  own  Turkish  band, 
trained  by  German  and  Italian  masters,  executed  the 
best  of  modem  compositions.  The  rude  barbaric  music 
of  the  Turks  was  seldom  heard  in  the  palace,  or  even 
indeed  in  the  regimental  bands.  Whatever  noted 
foreign  player  visited  Constantinople — whether  pianist, 
flutist,  or  fiddler — he  was  sure  to  be  invited  to  the 
palace  to  play  for  one  or  more  evenings  to  the  Sultan, 
and  equally  sure  to  get  a  good  round  sum  of  money^ 
and  a  gold,  diamond-set  snuff-box.  The  most  refined, 
or  I  should  not  be  far  wrong  in  saying  the  onlt/  refined 
amusements  of  the  serraglio,  began  and  ended  in  music. 

s2 


260  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXI. 

The  mo6t  sensual  of  all  the  fine  arts  was  the  most 
spiritual  of  Abdul  Medjid's  pastimes.  From  these 
musical  soirees  his  women  were  of  course  rigidly  ex- 
cluded. If  the  kadinns  and  odalisks  heard  the  sweet 
strains,  it  must  have  been  at  a  distance,  and  through 
screens  and  wooden  partitions. 

Nothing  that  I  could  hear  from  any  reliable  source 
was  proper  to  raise  my  estimate  of  the  character,  or 
intellects,  or  tastes,  of  any  of  the  great  Turkish  ladies. 
It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  treat  them  merely  as 
the  inmates  of  the  harem,  or  as  recluses,  or  caged  birds. 
If  the  Sultan's  own  women  were  caged,  none  others 
were.  His  married  sisters,  as  well  as  his  mother,  were 
constantly  abroad.  The  women  of  the  Pashas  and 
other  great  employes  were  more  out  of  doors  (in  the 
daytime)  than  our  fashionable  and  most  stirring  ladies 
during  the  London  season :  they  were  to  be  seen  every 
day,  when  the  weather  was  fine,  on  the  Bosphorus,  in 
the  Golden  Horn,  in  the  bazaars,  on  the  great  square 
near  the  Seraskier^s  tower,  and  in  the  streets;  they 
were  incessantly  going  and  coming,  shopping,  and  pay* 
ing  visits ;  they  were  greater  gadabouts  than  the  belles 
of  Paris  in  the  old  and  gay  time.  If  their  graceless, 
cumbersome,  out-of-door  dresses  spoiled  or  utterly  con- 
cealed their  figures,  and  if  their  loose,  shapeless,  yellow- 
morocco  boots,  and  their  awkward  slippers,  hid  their 
feet  and  spoiled  their  gait,  the  younger  and  handsomer 
of  them  took  good  care  that  their  yashmacs  should  not 
conceal  their  faces.  The  gauze  worn  by  these  dames 
of  highest  fashion  was  as  transparent  as  the  famed  tex- 
tile of  old  Cos,  and  it  was  drawn  across  only  the  chin 
and  forehead.     The  bosom  was  exposed,  as  I  have 


Chap.  XXI.  TTBKISH  T.AnneR  261 

already  mentioned.  From  some  of  the  handsomest  and 
greatest  one  not  nnfireqaentiy  heard  language  whidi  a 
nymph  or  matron  of  Billingsgate  woold  not  nse* 

Mr  ....  the  consul  of ... .  was  walking  one  after* 
noon  in  that  most  lovely  valley  of  die  Bosphorosi  called 
the  '^  Sweet  Waters  of  Asia."  Near  an  imperial  kiosk, 
in  the  midst  of  the  valley,  he  saw,  dancing  or  posture- 
making  on  the  fresh  greensward,  some  half-doaen  of 
itinerant  dancing-girls,  of  the  lowest  and  most  aban- 
doned kind.  Their  performance  was  so  revolting,  so 
barbarously  obscene,  that  he  was  about  to  quit  the  spot, 
when  the  Sultan's  two  married  sisters  drove  or  rumbled 
up  in  a  cocheCy  (followed  by  numerous  and  well-known 
attendants,)  and,  alighting  at  the  kiosk,  joined  some 
other  ladies  who  had  been  witnessing  the  exhibition 
from  the  windows  of  that  building.  After  this  august 
arrival,  and  a  short  rest,  the  vile  posture-makers  went 
to  their  work  again.  Shouts  of  laughter,  and  showers 
of  small  coin,  came  out  of  the  windows;  the  more 
indecent  the  movements  or  combination  of  movement, 
the  louder  was  the  laughter ;  and  when  the  performance 
reached  its  utmost  climax,  the  ladies  in  the  kiosk 
applauded  with  voice  and  hand,  and  then  threw  out 
more  money. 


262  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Hedioal  School  at  Galata  Serai  —  Infidelity  and  Ftench  Books  — Bad 
Hospital  —  Military  Scboola  —  Dervish  Pasha  —  No  Rayahs  in  the 
Anny  —  Straining  at  gnats  and  swallowing  of  camels  —  School  for 
Engineers  —  Naval  Academy  at  the  Arsenal  —  Mr.  Sang,  Teacher  of 
Mathematics  —  Mathematical  Boc^  —  An  Anglo-Turkish  Euclid  — '» 
An  English  Renegade  —  Turkish  University  —  A  Medal  —  DiflBcultiea 
in  the  way  of  Education  —  Military  Hospitals  —  Tophana  Hospital  — 
Marine  Hospital  —  Grand  Military  Hospital  at  Scutari  —  Diseases  of 
Turkish  Soldiers  —  More  Materialism  —  Military  Hospital  at  the  Ser- 
raglio  Point  —  Turkish  Almshouses  —  New  Hospital  of  the  Sultana 
Yalid^  —  The  Et  Meidan  —  Madhouses  and  State  Prisoners  in  them 
—  Dr.  Dawson  and  Dr.  Davy  —  The  Plague  —  Turkish  Ingratitude. 

Among  my  letters  of  introduction  to  men  in  office  and 
heads  of  departments^  I  had  one  for  Ismael  Efiendi, 
who  had  resided  a  considerable  time,  in  very  poor  and 
humble  circumstances,  at  Paris  and  at  London,  and 
who  was  now,  through  the  favour  of  Beschid  Pasha, 
advanced  to  the  high  dignities  of  Hekim-Badli  to  the 
Sultan  and  President  of  the  Medical  College  at  Galata 
Serai,  This  Ismael  was  a  renegade  Greek,  a  supple 
courtier,  and  an  accomplished  buffoon.  I  could  never 
get  sight  of  him ;  he  was  always  engaged  in  paying 
court  to  the  courtiers,  or  in  buffooning  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  pashas.  I  called  at  least  a  dozen  times  at 
the  Galata  Serai,  in  the  hope  of  finding  him  there ;  I 
walked  twice,  through  snow  and  slush,  to  his  private 
residence,  at  rather  an  early  hour  in  the  morning:  he 
was  invisible,  I  left  my  letter,  and  he  took  no  notice 
of  it  or  of  me.     At  last  I  took  that  step  which  hardly 


Chap.  XXII.    MEDICAL  SCHOOL  AT  GALATA  SERAI.  263 

ever  &iled  me.  I  walked  into  the  Medical  College, 
spoke  with  some  of  the  people  employed  in  it,  said  I 
was  an  Engli^  traveller,  and  asked  to  be  conducted 
oyer  the  establishment  The  kehayah,  or  superintend 
dent,  though  a  very  ignorant  and  a  very  rapacious  nkan, 
was  sufficiently  civil,  and  a  Turkish  professor  of  clynica, 
a  Stamboulee,  who  had  never  quitted  his  native  city, 
but  who  yet  spoke  French  fluently  and  correctly,  was 
not  only  very  polite,  but  attentive  and  communicative. 
I  repeated  my  visit,  and  afterwards  spent  two  whole 
mornings  in  examining  these  schools.  I  say  nothing  of 
the  paltriness  and  perilousness  of  the  wooden  buildings, 
for  they  served  only  as  a  temporary  lodging,  and  a 
spacious  stone  edifice,  in  the  Grand  Champ  des  Morts, 
was  now  almost  finished,  and  this  edifice  was  to  be  the 
Medical  College.  No  harsh  criticism  could  apply  to 
the  liberality  of  the  young  Sultan  in  providing  the  sums 
necessary  for  stocking  the  establishment  with  imple- 
ments, museums,  cabinets,  and  other  means  and  facilities 
of  study.  All  the  last  improved  implements  of  Paris, 
London,  and  Vienna,  were  to  be  found  in  the  Galata 
Serai.  There  was  a  small,  but  not  bad  botanical  garden. 
There  was  a  Natural  History  museum,  with  a  collection 
t>f  geological  specimens  attached;  there  was  a  very  suf- 
ficient medical  library,  the  books  being  nearly  every  one 
French.  There  was  a  good  anatomical  theatre,  and  an 
excellent  "  Gabinetto  Fisico,"  stocked  with  electric- 
machines,  galvanic  batteries,  hydraulic  presses,  and 
nearly  every  machine  and  adjunct  necessary  to  teach, 
or  to  experimentalize  in,  the  physical  sciences ;  and  all 
these  things  were  of  the  most  perfect  kind,  having  been 
purchased  of  the  best  makers  in  Christendom;  and. 


264  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

thanks  to  iiie  vigilant  care  and  scrupulous  neatness  of 
some  Germans  employed  in  the  establishment^  they 
were  all,  as  yet,  in  excellent  order.  I  fear,  however, 
that  this  apple-pie  order  denoted  that  they  were  very 
seldom  used.  I  was  told  afterwards  that  except  a  big 
electrical-machine  which  the  Turks  were  pretty  con- 
stantly employing  as  a  mere  playtiiing,  hardly  any 
machine  or  apparatus  in  this  cabinet  was  ever  touched. 
What  first  or  most  powerfully  roused  my  reproba- 
tion was  the  grossness  of  two  attempts  at  deception.  By 
the  French  journalists,  and  by  other  means,  the  world 
had  been  given  to  believe: — 1.  That  the  number  of 
resident,  fixed  students,  was  nearly  double  that  which  I 
found  it  2.  That  young  Greeks,  Armenians,  and  even 
Jews  were  admitted,  each  on  a  number  nearly  equal  to 
that  of  the  young  Turks.  The  mudir,  or  superin- 
tendent, had  himself  told  me  that  there  were  more  than 
700  students.  I  now  learned  firom  some  of  the  students 
and  two  of  the  professors,  that  there  were  not  400  in- 
mates in  all ;  that  the  Turkish  students  amounted  to 
about  300  ;  that  of  Greek  students  there  were  only  40, 
of  the  Armenians  only,  29,  and  of  Jews  no  more  than 
15 1  The  mudir,  who  was  a  great  rogue  and  a  dirty, 
had  assured  me  that,  collectively,  the  Bayah  students 
were  rather  more  numerous  than  the  Mussulmans.  It 
was  not  a  Bayah,  but  a  Mussulman,  who  told  me  that 
the  number  of  students  had  been  materially  reduced 
since  this  mudir*s  accession  to  the  office,  and  who  gave 
me  to  understand  that  the  Sultan  was  still  paying  for 
the  larger  number,  and  that  the  mudir  and  some  of  his 
confederates  in  cheating  were  every  month  putting  the 
difference  into  their  own  pockets.     Not  long  ago  the 


Chap.  XXH.    MEDICAL  SCHOOL  AT  GALATA  SERAI.  265 

expenditure  and  accounts  of  ihe  College  had  been 
managed  and  kept  by  an  honest,  conscientious  man ; 
but  such  men  can  never  long  retain  their  posts  in  Turkey* 
This  present  mudir  had  previously  been  fiie  superin- 
tendent of  some  mines  near  Salonica ;  and  it  was  said 
that  (among  friends)  he  would  boast  how  cleverly  he 
had  cheated  the  Government  in  that  capacity. 

Not  only  did  the  students  pay  no  fees,  but  they 
were  paid  for  studying  and  Uving  in  the  CoUege. 
Among  the  Turks  there  were  none  that  could  have 
paid,  and,  in  their  regard,  there  was  a  strong  religious 
prejudice  to  be  overcome.  To  entice  students  the 
Sultan  had  granted  monthly  salaries,  varying  from  20 
piastres  for  the  youngest  boys,  to  300  piastres  for  the 
maturer  students.  Many  of  them  were  mere  children, 
who  were  doing  notiiing  but  learning  French.  The 
only  really  busy  man  in  the  establishment  was  the 
French  master.  "They  must  all  wait  for  me,**  said 
he,  "  the  rest  of  the  professors  can  do  nothing  without 
me  I  Until  these  gar9ons  shall  have  learned  French 
they  can  learn  no  other  science.  French  is  the  only 
language  of  science  I  Science  cannot  be  taught  in 
Turkish.**  In  his  last  assertion  he  was  not  very  wide 
of  the  truth.  The  students  were  lodged  as  well  as 
boarded  in  the  College.  The  money  allowed  by  the 
Sultan  was  ample  for  a  good  dietary,  even  if  the  num- 
bers had  been  filled  up ;  but  the  food  dispensed  by  the 
old  mudir  was  of  very  inferior  quality.  Clothes  were 
also  allowed  by  the  Sultan.  The  students  had  a  uni- 
form, or  a  blue-frock  coat,  with  light-green  collar  and 
facings,  with  the  device  of  .Slsculapius  embroidered  in 
silver.    But  this  fine  coat  was  worn  only  when  out  of 


266  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,  Chap.  XXII. 

doors :  the  students  were,  to  the  last  degree,  slovenly 
when  within  the  College.  They  all  seemed  to  be  taken 
from  very  poor  classes :  I  was  told  that  the  Turks  were 
one  and  all  of  the  lowest  grades,  the  sons  of  boatmen* 
horse-keepers,  petty  dealers,  bazaar-porters,  and  the  like ; 
and  that  no  Turk  of  the  high  or  even  middle  class  ever 
sent  a  son  to  the  College.  A  very  considerable  portion 
of  the  whole  gave  up  all  thoughts  of  medicine  as  soon 
as  they  quitted  the  College;  some  being  taken  by 
Government  and  employed  in  totally  different  services, 
and  others,  of  themselves,  renouncing  a  profession  which 
was  badly  paid  and  led  to  no  promotion.  I  was  assured 
that  scarcely  one  of  these  students,  on  quitting  Galata 
Serai,  was  well  grounded  in  his  profession,  or  fit  to  be 
more  than  a  dresser  or  hospital-mate.  I  certainly 
never  found  one,  either  in  the  barrack-hospitals  or  in 
any  other  hospital  or  establishment  of  Government^ 
occupying  a  higher  post  than  that  of  hospital-mate ;  and 
of  those  I  heard  of,  who  were  acting  as  surgeons  of 
regiments,  /  heard  no  good.  The  young  men  fmmd 
that  they  could  turn  the  advantages  of  their  education 
to  better  account  By  entering  the  service  of  pashas  or 
other  great  men,  as  secretaries,  drogomans,  and  facto- 
tums, they  could  at  once  get  double  the  pay  and  more, 
than  double  the  chances  of  a  poor  hekim — ^they  could 
get  upon  the  crooked  road  of  state  business  or  state 
intrigue,  with  a  fair  or  foul  chance  of  becoming  great 
pashas  themselves.  Of  the  reaUy  clever  young  men 
who  had  completed  their  term  and  were  now  out  in 
the  world,  I  could  scarcely  hear  of  more  than  two  that 
were  hekims.  The  Medical  School  of  Galata  Serai, 
therefore,  does  not  make    many  doctors  or  surgeons* 


Chap.  XKU.      mPTOELITY  AND  FRENCH  BOOKS.  267 

The  Sultan's  journalists,  on  every  opportunity,  presented 
a  charming  picture  of  the  union  and  brotherly  love 
which  reigned  in  the  College.  And  was  it  not  beau- 
tiiul  to  see  Osmanlees  and  Rayahs,  Turks,  Greeks, 
Armenians,  and  Jews,  living  together  in  peace  and 
amity  wi&in  the  same  precincts,  and  all  united  by  the 
same  studies  and  by  the  same  love  of  science  ?  The 
picture  was  charming,  but  it  was  not  true :  the  students 
quarrelled  as  much  as  George  Colman's  *^  Holy  Friars.** 
The  Turks,  being  so  much  the  more  numerous,  bullied 
all  the  Rayahs,  ate  and  lived  apart  from  them,  and 
would  not  associate  with  them ;  the  Greeks  hated  the 
Armenians,  and  the  Armenians  tdie  Greeks,  and  both 
united  in  treating  the  very  feeble  minority  of  poor 
Jews  with  tiie  greatest  contumely. 

If  Reschid  Pasha's  idol  theory  of  amaJgamation  could 
have  been  tried  anywhere  willi  success  it  was  here,  with 
boys  and  striplings,  who  were  under  government  and 
collegiate  regulations,  whose  prejudices  had  not  gained 
the  stubbornness  of  age,  and  whose  religious  scruples 
(whether  Mahometan,  or  Christian,  or  Jewish)  were 
pretty  well  obliterated  by  French  books  and  philoso 
phism.  But  there  was  no  amalgamation,  or  even  the 
slightest  approach  to  it.  The  antipathy  of  castes  and 
races  was  as  strong  and  violent  as  ever.  There  was 
a  negative,  but  no  positive :  Galata  Serai  had  given — 
or  was  giving — ^them  one  di^eliefj  but  it  had  done  and 
was  doing  nothing  that  could  give  them  one  belief  and 
blend  them  together,  or  make  a  one-hearted  people  of 
them.  Yet  delays,  interruptions,  and  confusions  arose 
out  of  the  differences  of  religion :  the  Turks  kept  their 
Sabbath  or  holiday  on  Friday,  the  Jews  on  Saturday^ 


268  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

the  Christians  on  Sunday,  &c. ;  and  on  these  several 
days  they  left  the  College  and  went  home  to  their 
families.  The  two  French  and  two  German  professors 
found  these  three  holidays  in  a  week  very  inconvenient 
to  their  classes. 

The  professor  of  botany  was  a  Turk,  who  had  never 
quitted  his  own  country  or  travelled  in  it ;  he  was  assisted 
by  a  German  gardener.  In  a  long,  airy  gallery  we 
found  a  pretty  good  collection  of  botanical  engravings, 
coloured,  and  very  neatly  executed  at  Paris  and 
Vienna,  and  a  few  botanical  drawings,  which  had  been 
copied  from  French  prints  by  some  of  the  students. 
In  the  dissecting-room  we  found  a  dozen  young  Turks 
by  themselves,  cutting  up  the  body  of  a  negress.  On  a 
''side-board,"  close  at  hand,  lay  the  uncovered  and 
horrible-looking  corpse  of  a  negro ;  and  in  an  ante- 
room were  slovenlily  scattered  the  head,  arms,  and 
legs,  and  all  the  disjecta  membroj  of  another  Nubian. 
As  we  entered,  these  Mussulman  students  were  talking 
and  laughing,  were  handling  the  black  human  flesh  with 
as  little  scruple  as  if  it  had  been  mutton  or  lamb,  and 
were  working  away  with  scalpels  that  were  shorter  than 
our  silver  fruit-knives.  I  asked  one  of  them  whether 
all  this  were  not  somewhat  contrary  to  his  religion.*  He 
laughed  in  my  face,  and  said,  "  Eh !  Monsieur,  ce  nest 
pas  au  Galata  Serai  quHlfaut  venir  chercher  la  religion  I  *' 
One  of  the  Greek  students  who  was  accompanying  me 
enjoyed  the  Turk's  sally  very  much,  and  assured  me 
that  in  this  College  they  all  became  phibsophes  h  la 

♦  The  Prophet  Mahomet  says—"  Thou  shalt  not  open  a  dead  body, 
although  it  may  have  swallowed  the  most  predona  pearl  belonging  to 
another/* 


Chap.  XXn.    DISSECTING-ROOM  AT  GALATA  SERAI.  269 

Voltaire.  I  had  reason  to  believe  that  they  went  far 
beyond  or  below  Voltaire.  "  You  see,"  said  one  of  the 
professors,  "how  we  extirpate  prejudices!  Did  you 
ever  expect  to  see  Turks  opening  and  cutting  up  a 
human  body  ?  *'  I  replied  "  No ! "  and,  feeling  rather 
sick,  walked  out  of  the  room  and  into  the  garden.  I 
there  learned  from  those  with  me  that  the  victory  over 
prejudice  was  very  far  from  being  complete.  The 
Mussulmans  out-of-doors  had  a  horror  of  dissection,  and 
neither  Christian  nor  Jewish  Bayahs  could  bear  the  idea 
of  the  body  of  one  of  their  own  family  or  their  own  sect 
being  given  to  the  hospital.  At  the  time  of  my  visits 
the  cholera  was  carrying  off  daily  many  Turkish 
soldiers,  and  particularly  in  the  Arsenal  barracks,  just 
below  Galata  Serai,  and  very  many  of  the  poorest 
Bayahs,  but  they  never  got  a  body  from  either  of  these 
classes;  they  never  got  a  white  subject^  except  when 
some  miserable,  unfriended,  unknown  Christian  or 
Jewish  convict  in  the  Bagnio  gave  up  the  ghost ;  they 
depended  almost  exclusively  upon  the  mortality  among 
the  Nubian  slaves,  and  now  most  rarely  got  any  subject 
except  a  negro  or  negress.  But  of  these  there  was 
a  plenty.  Usually  the  master  of  the  dead  slave  got 
20  or  25  piastres  for  the  body,  on  delivery  at  the 
school. 

The  students  of  Galata  Serai  must  have  had  abundant 
opportunities  of  learning  the  peculiarities  of  Nubian 
physiology.  The  authorities  were  afraid  that  the  sol- 
diers might  revolt  if  the  bodies  of  their  comrades  were 
sent  to  the  hospital^  instead  of  being  buried  in  the  earth, 
almost  as  soon  as  dead,  as  the  Koran  prescribes.  As 
everything  is  variable  here,  and  dependent  on  the  cha- 


270  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXII. 

racter  and  energy  of  one  or  two  individuals)  it  might 
have  been  different  six  or  seven  years  ago,  when  Mr. 
White  made  his  observations,  but  I  can  confidently 
affirm  that  such  was  the  state  of  the  supplies  to  the 
anatomical  school  in  the  spring  of  1848. 

Though  but  temporary,  the  room  for  public  exa- 
minations was  large  and  convenient,  having  a  gilded 
fauteuil  or  a  sort  of  throne  for  the  Sultan,  who  had  for 
several  years  attended  regularly  at  the  examinations. 
There  were  several  good  class  and  lecture  rooms. 
There  was  also  a  tolerable  chemical  laboratory,  with  a 
fair  supply  of  apparatus.  It  was  amusing  to  be  told  in 
this  last  room  that  a  good  many  of  the  Turkish  and 
Armenian  students  preferred  chemical  to  any  other 
studies  or  experiments,  because  they  hoped  to  find  out 
the  art  of  transmuting  the  baser  metals  into  gold,  or  to 
discover  the  elixir  vitce.  Alchymia  rediviva  I  The 
human  mind  cannot  be  without  belief,  or  without  some- 
thing beyond  this  positive  world !  One  credulity  takes 
the  place  of  another.  See  the  history  of  the  first  great 
French  Revolution  I  The  French  had  never  so  many 
credulities,  wild  beliefs,  or  aspirations,  as  when  they  had 
made  an  abnegation  of  all  religious  faith.  Never  was 
there  so  much  confidence  that  science  might  indefinitely 
prolong  the  existence  of  the  frail  body  of  man,  as  when 
they  had  voted  the  non-existence  of  a  God  and  the 
mortality  of  the  soul !  Among  the  books  in  this  medi- 
cal library  there  were  but  too  many  of  that  period,  or 
of  the  philoscpkismizinff  period  which  immediately  pre- 
ceded it,  and  which  in  fact  created  it.  It  was  long 
since  I  had  seen  such  a  collection  of  downright  mate- 
rialism.    A  young  Turk,  seemingly  about  twenty  years 


Chap.  XXH.         LIBRARY  AT  GALATA  SERAI.  271 

of  age,  was  sitting  cross-le^ed  in  a  comer  of  the  room, 
reading  that  manual  of  atheism,  the  **  SysthvM  de  la 
Nature  V*  Another  of  the  students  showed  his  proficiency 
in  French  and  philosophy,  by  quoting  passages  from 
Diderot's  ^^  Jacques  U  Faialistt,^*  and  from  .that  com- 
pound of  blasphemy  and  obscenity,  "  Le  Comphre 
Maihieur  Les  Torques  se  civiliseni.  TesI  with  a 
vengeance !  And  quite  ^  la  Franqaise.  And  when 
they  are  thus  civilized,  what  next  ? 

I  saw  a  few  works  in  German,  and  there  appeared  to 
be  a  few  translations  of  English  medical  books,  but  the 
bulk  was  wholly  French.  Cabanes's  "  Rapport  de  la  Phy- 
sique  et  du  Morale  de  r Homme  "  occupied  a  conspicuous 
place  on  the  shelves.  I  no  longer  wondered  it  should 
be  commonly  said  that  every  student  who  came  out  of 
Galata  Serai,  after  keeping  the  full  term,  came  out 
always  a  materialist,  and  generally  a  libertine  and  rogue. 
Close  by  the  library  they  had  set  up  a  German  litho- 
graphic printing-press ;  and  two  Armenians  were  printing 
the  skeleton  forms  of  daily  hospital  returns,  in  Turkish. 
These  returns,  I  was  told,  were  duly  filled  up  and  sent 
every  morning  to  our  invisible  friend  Ismael  Effendi, 
who  hardly  ever  came  near  the  place.  Soon  after  our 
departure,  this  Hekim  Bashi  was  suddenly  turned  into 
"Minister  of  Commerce ;"  and  only  those  who  are  on  the 
spot  can  tell  how  many  difierent  and  opposite  places  the 
renegade  Greek  may  have  been  put  into  since  then.  We 
were  told  that  some  elementary  works,  in  Turkish,  were 
in  preparation,  and  would  be  printed  at  this  lithographic 
press.  But  precisely  the  same  information  was  given 
years  ago,  and  not  one  of  these  books  has  yet  appeared. 
The  Turks  are  so  slow  and  indolent,  the  language  is  so 


272  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXTL 

cramped  and  confined,  the  work  so  di£Bicult !  To  render 
scientific  terms  they  are  obliged  to  coin  new  words,  or  to 
introduce  some  Arabic  word,  moulding  it  into  a  new 
form  or  meaning.  For  scientific  purposes  they  have 
indeed  to  make  almost  an  entirely  new  language ;  and 
when  this  is  made,  it  is  found  to  be  unintelligible  to  the 
students.  I  was  told  that  a  young  man  might  learn 
French,  so  as  to  be  able  to  read  scientific  books  in  the 
original,  in  a  very  little  more  time  than  was  necessary 
to  him  for  acquiring  this  new  Turkish  language  of 
science.  Then,  again,  people  complained  that  this  last 
language  was  neither  complete  nor  fixed;  that  many 
ideas,  and  even  simple  things,  could  not  be  expressed  in 
it ;  that  very  often  the  translators  were  obliged  to  retain 
French  or  Latin  terms ;  that  the  new  word-makers  did 
not  proceed  upon  any  uniform  system  or  principle,  and 
that  the  terminology  of  one  was  not  that  of  another.  In 
mathematics,  and,  I  believe,  to  a  certain  extent  in  che- 
mistry, the  learned  katibs  could  get  over  the  ground 
pretty  well  with  the  help  of  Arabic;  but  then  the 
students  had  to  learn  this  Arabic.  In  all  other  sciences 
the  diflSculty  was  exceedingly  great. 

The  hospital  attached  to  the  Galata  Serai  was  not 
very  creditable,  the  rooms  being  small  and  crowded, 
and  the  patients'  beds  (sixty  in  all)  abominably  foul. 
But  in  the  new  College  now  building,  they  were  to  have 
a  spacious,  well-ventilated  hospital,  with  a  proper  divi- 
sion of  wards,  with  new  beds  and  bedding,  and  all  things 
proper.  I  here  had  additional  evidence  as  to  the  pre- 
valence of  a  certain  disease  which,  twenty  years  ago, 
was  almost  unknown  among  the  Turks.  Under  the 
superintendence  of  a  T^rank  professor,  some  of  the  senior 


Chap.  XXH.    DERVISH  PASHA—MILITARY  SCHOOLS.         273 

students  had  recently  performed  various  surgical  opera- 
tions. Two  young  Greeks  were  pointed  out  as  having 
uncommon  quickness  and  address,  and  as  being  likely  to 
make  excellent  operators. 

This  Galata  Serai  had  very  different  occupants  when 
I  was  at  Constantinople  twenty  years  ago.  I  doubt, 
however,  whether  it  was  more  moral  then  than  now. 
The  building  was  erected  by  Achmet  III.  as  a  place 
of  education  for  the  imperial  pages.  The  father  of  the 
present  Sultan  converted  it  into  a  medical  school ;  and 
it  is  said  that  he  was  so  pleased  with  the  innovation, 
that  he  traced  with  his  own  hand  the  original  inscription 
which  is  now  copied  in  large  letters  of  gold  over  the 
great  entrance  gate, — "  All  who  look  upon  this  edifice 
will  exclaim,  Aferin  I  **  (Well  done).  The  school  was 
originally  intended  as  a  nursery  (exclusively)  for  military 
and  naval  surgeons ;  but  these  changing  fitful  adminis* 
trations  never  adhere  to  any  original  plan. 

We  repeatedly  visited  the  two  Military  Schools 
above  Fera  and  the  Galata  Serai.  I  had  brought  a 
letter  to  Ibrahim  Pasha,  "  Director-General  of  Military 
Schools ;"  but  I  could  never  find  him,  either  at  home  or 
anywhere  else.  This  was  of  less  consequence,  as  he  was 
removed  to  another  office  before  the  state  of  the  weather 
allowed  us  to  go  out  to  the  schools,  and  as  I  found  in 
Dervish  Pasha,  one  of  the  superintendents,  to  whom 
I  introduced  myself,  a  very  gentlemanly  and  obliging 
officer.  I  find  in  my  diary,  under  date  of  the  14th  of 
March,  1848 — ^'Hardly  one  pasha  but  has  changed 
place  and  fimctions  since  we  came  to  this  country  in 
August  last  Nothing  is  fixed  in  office.  Most  of  these 
changes  appear  to  proceed  from  no  intelligible  motive, 

VOL.  n.  T 


274  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

but  from  mere  caprice.  One  has  scarcely  done  wonder- 
ing at  a  change  when  another  is  made.  There  never 
can  be  any  official  order  in  any  one  department  of 
government''  Dervish,  who  was  now  second  in  autho- 
rity, and  who  ought  to  have  heen  firsts  was  regular  and 
most  punctual  in  his  attendance  at  the  senior  Military 
Academy :  he  spoke  French  even  better  than  All  Pasha, 
and  English  almost  as  well  as  French ;  he  had  spent 
three  years  in  England ;  he  had  travelled  a  good  deal 
on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  had  travelled  with  hia 
eyes  open;  his  scientific  acquirements  seemed  to  be 
considerable ;  his  conversation  was  animated,  frank,  and 
unaffected ;  he  had  no  pasha-pride  or  morgue^  he  was 
affable  to  all  men  and  always  glad  to  see  a  foreigner ; 
I  thought  and  still  think  better  of  him  than  of  any 
other  pasha  I  knew ;  he  was  the  only  one  of  them  that 
did  not  deal  in  stereotyped  phrases,  or  that  returned 
honest  direct  answers  to  plain  well-meant  questions.  I 
discovered  but  one  fault  in  him  :  thoi^h  a  young  man 
he  took  but  little  exercise,  and  was  growing  enormously 
fat,  like  all  the  rest  of  them.  It  could  not  well  be 
otherwise,  for  he  passed  his  days — as  they  all  do- 
seated  cross-legged,  on  a  broad  and  soft  divan.  The 
first  time  we  visited  him  we  found,  sitting  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  room,  a  good-natured  old  Neapolitan  officer 
who  had  been  thirty-three  years  in  the  East,  at  Algiers^ 
Tunis,  Alexandria,  Cairo,  Smjnma,  and  other  places, 
and  who,  for  the  last  four  or  five  years,  had  been  in- 
fantry instructor  in  this  senior  military  school.  He 
was  the  descendant  of  an  Irish  family  settled  in 
Naples,  his  name  .Mahony.  He  spoke  of  Dervish 
Pasha  as  the  most  enlightened,  most  honest,  and  by 


Cbap.  XXn.  SENTOB  MILITARY  SCHOOL.  27S 

far  the  most  assiduous  public  officer  he  had  ever  known 
in  Turkey.  Unluckily  he  was  hampered  by  two  other 
pashas^  who  were  receiving  high  salaries  for  doing 
nothing,  or  for  doing  only  what  was  mischievous.  The 
salaries  of  these  two  pashas^  and  of  certain  other  useless 
officials^  nearly  doubled  the  expense  of  the  schools  to 
the  Sultan.  More  Turco  I  These  people  have  a  bold 
genius  for  the  invention  of  sinecures.  Every  establish- 
ment was  encumbered  in  the  like  manner. 

The  Senior  Military  School^  on  the  right  of  the  road 
which  leads  to  Therapia  and  Buyukder^,  is  a  long 
i^ly  building  without,  but  it  has  far-extending,  pleasant 
corridors,  and  good  apartments  and  class-rooms  within ; 
and,  at  the  time  of  my  visits,  a  most  exemplary  clean- 
liness and  order  prevailed  throughout.  The  large 
refectory  was  not  yet  finished,  but  the  students  were 
taking  their  meals  (of  good  quality)  in  clean  and 
comfortable  rooms.  In  a  clean  and  spacious  school- 
room we  found  at  our  first  visit  about  thirty  young  men 
taking  French  lessons.  The  book  in  use  Fenelon's 
Fables,  which  they  read — for  the  most  part  with  a 
good  accent — and  then  rendered  into  Turkish,  with 
parsing,  &c.  The  French  master  was  a  smart  young 
Turk,  who  had  passed  ten  years  of  his  life  in  Paris. 
In  other  rooms  we  saw  some  students  drawing,  and  two 
of  them  reading  and  helping  one  another  to  understand 
Voltaire*s  Life  of  Charles  XII,  They  had  reached 
the  part  of  that  animated  narrative  where  the  Swedish 
monarch  at  Bender,  with  a  handfiil  of  men,  defends  his 
house  against  a  whole  army  of  Janizaries  and  Turkish 
irregulars.  They  seemed  to  enjoy  the  incidents  ex- 
ceedingly.     In  every   part  of  the  estaUishment  we 

t2 


276  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

noticed  the  same  scrupulous  neatness  and  order;  but 
the  students  in  their  vile  loose,  in-door,  drab  great- 
coats, looked  like  common  soldiers,  or  rather  like  felons 
in  gaol  dresses.  There  was  a  very  fair  room  set  apart 
for  the  Sultan,  with  a  gilded  fauteuil,  a  European  aofa 
covered  with  Genoa  velvet  richly  embroidered  m  gold, 
French  chairs,  rather  a  splendid  looking-glass,  and  a 
truly  splendid  Turkish  or  Persian  carpet.  The  lecture- 
room  was  excellent.  So  was  the  "  Gabinetto  Fisico." 
This  last  large  room  was  well  provided  with  apparatus 
and  instruments,  English,  French,  and  German :  here 
we  found  Dr.  Smith's  American  electro-telegraph,  good 
electrical-machines,  and  all  manner  of  appliances  and 
means  for  the  study  of  the  physical  sciences,  kept  in 
dark  mahogany  glazed  cases,  which  stood  roimd  the 
room.  At  the  upper  end  of  the  room  there  was  a 
small  library,  consisting  almost  entirely  of  elegantly 
bound  French  books.  I  noticed  the  *  Moniteur  Uni- 
versel/  the  *  Encyclopedic  Methodique,'  •  Vauban/ 
•  Maximes  de  Turenne,'  *  Foy,'  &c.  There  were  a  few 
German  and  a  very  few  English  works  on  the  military 
science.  In  this  cabinet  there  was  a  sort  of  throne 
for  the  Sultan  to  sit  upon  during  the  examinations. 
Seated  by  the  side  of  it  we  looked  over  a  portfolio  of 
drawings  by  the  students — all  mere  copies  from  French 
or  German  engravings  or  lithographs,  but  neatly  ex* 
ecuted.  Some  mechanical  drawings,  sections  of  maps, 
and  plans  of  fortifications,  were  as  neat  as  could  pos- 
sibly be.  Dervish  Fasha  frankly  confessed  that  there 
had  been  much  mismanagement,  and  that  everything, 
except  the  collection  of  instruments,  was  as  yet  in  its 
infancy;    but  he  hoped  that,  if  time  were  allowed^ 


Chai".  XXn.        JUNIOR  MILITABT  ACADEMT.  277 

the  course  of  instruction  would  be  improved.  This 
school  had  been  erected  only  some  three  or  four  years 
ago.  There  were  now  in  it  one  hundred  and  one 
students.  The  majority  of  them  were  coarse  and  vulgar 
in  their  countenances  and  persons ;  some  few  had  an 
intelligent  expression,  but  not  one  had  the  appearance 
of  a  Turkish  gentleman.  They  were  very  far  jfrom 
being  well  set  up,  although  we  were  told  they  were 
pretty  r^ularly  drilled  at  an  early  hour  in  the  morning. 
Old  Signor  Mahony  said  that  they  had  very  little  taste 
for  military  exercises,  or  for  any  other  exercise,  and 
that  the  greater  part  of  them  hated  the  drill-ground. 
In  age  they  seemed  to  vary  from  seventeen  to  twenty- 
one.  Four  Frenchmen  were  employed  as  military 
instructors ;  a  Prussian  conducted  the  artillery  instruc- 
tion. The  drawing-master  was  a  Spaniard,  and  very 
little  of  an  artist. 

Dervish  Fasha  very  obligingly  sent  one  of  his  officers 
with  us  to  the  Junior  Military  Academy,  which  lay 
about  a  mile  to  the  northward,  on  the  ridge  of  hills 
behind  the  Sultan's  new  stone  palace  of  Dolma  Baghche. 
With  this  introduction  we  were  free  to  return  whenever 
we  chose.  The  day  of  our  first  visit  was  one  of  the  few 
delightful  spring  days  we  had  this  year.  We  found  the 
mudir  and  the  professors  making  keff- — that  is,  they 
were  smoking  their  tchibouques  under  a  few  shady  trees 
in  front  of  the  academy,  with  their  faces  turned  to  a 
bean-field  on  the  southern  slope  of  the  hill,  where  the 
beans  were  already  in  flower  and  smelling  sweetly. 
They  were  very  courteous,  and,  immediately  quitting 
their  pipes,  they  conducted  us  into  the  school.  Here 
there  were  no  long,  echoing  corridors,  as  in  the  superior 


278  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTDHT.  Chap,  XXR 

academy.  The  establishment  consisted  of  several  sepa- 
rate corps  de  logis^  or  old  buildings  in  the  Turkish  style^ 
which  had  nothing  noticeable  about  them  except  their 
order  and  cleanliness.  None  of  them  were  large.  Some 
quadrangles  were  prettily  laid  out  as  gardens.  There 
was  a  small  mosque,  not  built  of  late  years^  attached  to 
the  school — at  the  Senior  Academy  there  was  none. 
The  number  of  pupils  was  between  two  and  three  hun- 
dred. They  are  admitted  at  the  age  of  twelve.  They 
remain  here  five  years,  then  pass  to  the  upper  school  for 
four  years,  and  then  into  the  army  or  to  some  govern- 
ment employment,  with  the  rank  of  captain.  Some 
become  engineers;  some  artillery,  some  cavalry,  and 
some  infantry  officers:  but  they  all  pursue  the  same 
line  of  study.  From  the  day  of  their  entrance  they  are 
lodged,  fed,  and  clothed,  at  the  expense  of  the  Sultan, 
receiving  also  a  small  monthly  gratuity,  which  is  in- 
creased as  they  advance  in  age.  In  spite  of  all  these 
encouragements  a  good  many  of  them  get  heart-sick  of 
study  and  confinement,  and  abscond.  I  was  told  the 
same  thing  at  the  Galata  Serai.  Here  there  is  no  mix- 
ture of  races  or  of  faiths ;  for,  in  this  reformed  and  to  be 
amalgamated  empire,  none  but  Mussulmans  can  be  sol- 
diers. A  distinguished  diplomatist,  who  was  taken  into 
council  by  the  late  Sultan  Mahmoud  when  his  affairs 
were  very  desperate,  told  that  sovereign  that  his  remedy 
would  be  to  allow  his  Christian  Rayah  subjects  to  be 
soldiers  as  well  as  the  Turks ;  and  that  from  the  day 
he  raised  and  armed  a  Christian  regiment  his  empire 
would  be  safe.  Entertaining  as  I  do  the  greatest  respect 
for  this  adviser,  I  cannot  agree  with  the  advice ;  for  I 
believe  that  if  the  Rayahs  were  regimented,  their  inve- 


Chap.  XXH.  NO  RAYAHS  IN  THE  ARMY.  279 

terate  antipathies  would  lead  them  to  employ  their 
arms  against  one  another;  and  that,  whatever  the 
Armenians  might  do,  the  Greeks  would  not  be  long  ere 
they  fell  upon  their  co-militants  the  Turks.  Apart 
firom  the  religious  antagonism,  there  is  a  four-hundred- 
years'-old  hatred  to  the  Osmanlee  on  the  part  of  the 
Greek,  which  no  political  schemes,  no  merely  mortal 
means,  will  ever  eradicate.  If  in  European  Turkey  the 
Greeks  were  trained  and  armed  in  anything  like  the 
same  proportion  as  the  Mussulmans,  the  Mussulmans 
would  be  speedily  driven  back  into  Asia,  for  the  Greeks 
excel  them  as  much  in  daring  and  activity  as  they  do 
in  wit  and  intelligence.  But  if  only  a  few  Greek  regi- 
ments were  raised,  what  would  happen  in  the  case  of  a 
Bussian  invasion  ? — a  case  the  Turks  are  always  con- 
templating, and  nearly  all  of  them  with  misgivings  and 
dread.  The  Greeks  would  fire  into  the  Turks  with 
whom  they  were  brigaded,  and,  with  shouts  for  the 
Gross  and  Holy  Virgin,  would  pass  over  to  their  co- 
religionists the  Russians.  I  feel  as  certain  of  this  as  of 
the  physical,  unalterable  fact,  that  the  river  Danube 
flows  downward  from  its  sources  in  the  Alps  to  its 
mouths  on  the  Euxine.  I  never  met  with  the  man  in 
the  country  that  entertained  a  different  opinion. 

As  at  Galata  Serai,  the  students  were  drawn  from 
poor  Turkish  families :  they  were  sons  of  boatmen,  por- 
ters, papoush-makers,  &c.  One  of  the  schoolmasters, 
a  Perote  Frank,  told  me  that  in  the  whole  number 
(here  and  in  the  upper  school)  there  were  not  above  six 
or  seven  that  could  be  considered  as  the  sons  of  gentle- 
men, and  that  these  few  were  the  children  of  effendis 
whose  fortunes  were  at  the  lowest  ebb^     Others  told 


1 


280  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXII. 

me  the  reforming  government  preferred  the  rawest  ma- 
terials to  any  others,  and  found  the  children  of  the 
uniostructed,  dependent  poor,  more  submissive  and 
ductile  than  the  children  of  the  superior  classes.  Their 
drawing-master,  the  son  of  a  Frenchman,  but  a  native 
of  Pera,  praised  their  docility,  and,  in  general,  their  in- 
telligence ;  but  he  complained  that  they  were  altogether 
insensible  to  the  point  of  honour,  or  to  punishment  by 
shame.  Here  it  was  necessary  to  make  use  of  the  bas- 
tinado. As  much  might  have  been  expected  from  the 
premises.  This  Frank  added  that  they  showed  no  in- 
ventive talent  whatever,  but  a  good  deal  of  imitative 
talent,  and  considerable  facility  of  execution,  as  well  in 
music  as  in  drawing.  He  said  that  whatever  a  Turk 
could  do  or  learn  cross-l^ged  or  sitting  at  his  ease  in  a 
quiet  room,  he  did  or  learned  pretty  well ;  but  that  there 
was  no  overcoming  their  natural  indolence  or  dislike  to 
active,  stirring  occupation.  Pointing  to  the  shady  side 
of  a  quadrangle,  where  from  twenty  to  thirty  youths 
were  sitting  on  their  heels,  doing  nothing — not  so  much 
as  talking — ^he  said,  "  Those  students  have  been  there 
these  three  hours,  and  there  they  would  sit  three  hours 
longer  if  they  were  allowed  to  follow  their  own  inclina- 
tions. French  boys,  when  out  of  school,  must  be  run- 
ning or  jumping,  or  engaging  in  some  active  sport 
Englishmen  are  quieter  than  we,  but  I  believe  English 
schoolboys  are  not  very  sedentary  when  released  from 
their  class-rooms :  but  few  of  these  Turks  ever  seem 
young ;  like  their  old  green-heads,  they  seem  to  think 
that  the  best  of  pastimes  is  to  sit  still  and  do  nothing." 

Begardless  of  the  good  rule  that  you  can  hardly 
begin  the  light  drill  too  early,  these   boys  were  not 


Chap.  XXII.    RELIGIOUS  SCBUPLBS  IK  DBAWING.  281 

drilled  at  all  until  they  were  drafted  into  the  senior 
school.  I  asked  some  of  the  professors  whence  the 
pnpils  in  these  two  schools  were  drawn :  they  told  me 
almost  entirely  from  Constantinople  and  its  neighbour- 
hood, because  military  schools  had  been  erected  in  the 
provinces — at  Brusa,  Kutayah,  Konia,  Damascus, 
Adrianople,  Salonica,  &c.  Fudge  I  There  was  not 
one  such  school.  Yet  would  I  not  accuse  these  gentle- 
men of  intentional  falsehood.  Long  since,  Abdul  Med- 
jid  had  ordered  that  there  should  be  such  schools ;  and 
when  the  Sultan  orders  a  thing  to  be  done,  the  Turks 
consider  that  it  is  finished ;  and  the  French  journalists 
of  Pera  confirm  them  in  their  illusion.  By  well- 
informed  persons  I  was  repeatedly  asked  whether  the 
new  military  school  at  Brusa,  or  Kutayah,  or  Adrian- 
ople,  were  not  in  a  flourishing  condition  ?  Here,  above 
Dolma  Baghche,  the  favourite  pursuit  seemed  to  be 
drawing :  I  never  saw  the  boys  doing  anything  else. 
On  our  first  visit  we  found,  in  two  rooms,  from  fifty  to 
sixty  pupils  copying  French  prints — fancy  portraits  of 
women  as  well  as  of  men,  landscapes,  architectural 
pieces,  ruins,  ornaments,  scrolls,  flowers,  fruit,  wild 
beasts,  &c.  The  correctness  of  some  of  these  copies, 
and  the  neatness  of  execution,  were  commendable. 
Some  of  these  poor  fellows,  who  never  saw  any  object 
of  art  tmtil  they  came  here,  had  been  only  six  or  eight 
months  under  tuition.  A  few  of  the  elder  pupils  were 
working  in  (icquareUa^  copying  coloured  prints  with 
French  water-colours ;  but  most  of  them  were  drawing 
with  charcoal,  or  black  French  chalk.  Here  a  serious 
religious  scruple  had  arisen.  A  Mussulman  may  not 
waste  or  throw  away  any  bread — no,  not  the  smallest 


282  TUBKET  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

mite.  If  a  Turk  of  the  old  school  sees  a  crumb  of 
bread  on  the  floor,  or  even  in  the  street)  he  will  stoop, 
pick  it  up,  and  devoutly  deposit  it  in  the  sleeve  of  his  * 
garment  Now,  crumbs  of  bread  must  be  used  to  erase 
the  mistakes  in  charcoal  or  chalk  drawings.  But  as 
these  crumbs  must  not  be  thrown  away,  what  could  be 
done  with  them?  After  serious  deliberation  it  was 
concluded  that  neither  charcoal  nor  chalk  was  poison- 
ous ;  and  the  pupils  undertook  to  swallow  all  the  crumbs 
they  dirtied  while  drawing.  The  rule  was  rigidly  en- 
forced. While  watching  them  at  work  I  saw  two  or 
three  boys  putting  in  their  mouths  pieces  of  bread  as 
black  as  my  hat  The  drawing-master  thought  that 
this  necessity  of  eating  their  mistakes  had  the  efiect  of 
making  them  more  carefiil  and  correct  Other  scruples, 
more  fatal  to  art,  interfered.  The  pupils  were  allowed 
to  draw  nothing  from  the  round  or  the  real,  tibe  Uletna 
haying  decided  that  the  faithful  must  not  draw  from 
objects  which  cast  shadows.    The  youths  must  thus 

remain  mere  mechanical  copyists.    Monsieur  6 ^ 

the  drawing-master,  did,  however,  entertain  some  hopes 
of  being  allowed  to  teach  them  to  sketch  landscapes 
after  nature.  But,  surely,  of  all  men  in  the  world  the 
lounging  keff-making  Ulema  will  be  the  first  to  tell 
him  that  trees  do  verily  cast  shadows;  nor  should  I 
be  astonished  if  they  discovered  that  shades  are  pro- 
jected by  mountains,  rocks,  and  buildings.  With  their 
scruples,  a  Peter  Schlemel — a  gentleman  without  a 
shadow — would  be  a  great  God-send  for  Turkish  art 
Yet  is  there  not  hoUowness  and  contradiction  here? 
The  commander  of  the  faithful  seems  never  to  be  hap- 
pier than  when  sitting  for  his  portrait  to  some  Frank 


Chai^.  XXn.         PORTRAITS  OF  THE  SULTAN.  283 

artist :  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  how  often  he  has  been 
painted,  or  how  many  miniature  pictures  of  himself;  set 
in  gold  and  diamonds,  he  has  given  away  to  foreign 
ambassadors  and  others :  a  iuU-length  portrait  of  him 
has  been  done  by  a  Frenchman  in  lithography,  and  a 
copy  of  this  print  is  found  in  nearly  every  decent 
Turkish  house  in  the  capital.  Reschid  Pasha,  and  all 
his  colleagues,  had  been  painted  and  repainted,  and  I 
never  knew  of  a  common  Turk  being  at  all  unwilling  to 
sit  while  you  made  a  sketch  of  his  person,  face,  and 
costume.  In  general,  the  poor  Turks  seemed  to  be 
delighted  at  the  opportunity,  and  quite  enchanted  with 
the  performance,  however  'poor  it  might  be.  It  had, 
however,  been  considered  that  the  popular  scruples  on 
this  head  were  very  strong.  The  late  Sultan  Mahmoud 
had  taken  energetic  measures  to  remove  them. 

Bishop  Southgate  says — 

''The scene  of  the  departing  pilgrims  seemed  to  me, 
at  the  moment,  at  least,  a  small  proof  of  the  remaining 
vigour  of  Islamism ;  but  it  was  followed  in  a  few  days  by 
another,  which  looked  more  like  decay.  On  the  4th  of 
August  (1836)  it  was  announced  that  a  portrait  of  the 
Sultan  was  to  be  presented  to  the  cavalry-barracks  near 
Pera,  and  I  thought  the  occasion  worthy  of  attention. 
A  similar  honour  had  already  been  conferred  on  several 
public  buildings,  and  it  was  intended  that  others  still 
should  share  it  Before  my  final  departure  from  Con- 
stantinople, in  the  summer  of  1838,  a  woful  misrepre- 
sentation of  the  royal  features  was  to  be  seen  in  most^ 
if  not  all,  the  barracks, — ^in  several  of  the  public  offices, 
and  in  the  cabins  of  some  of  the  ships  of  war.  Upon  tiie 
day  of  which  I  speak,  the  Sultan  himself  was  expected 


284  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XKII. 

to  be  present,  and  the  crowd  collected  to  witness  the 
ceremony  was  immense.  There  were  pointed  out  to  me 
representatives  of  twelve  different  nations,  among  whom 
were  Turks,  Arabs,  Persians,  Greeks,  Armenians, 
Jews,  and  Circassians,  distinguished  by  dieir  different 
garbs  and  features.  Then  came  the  races  of  Europe, 
homogeneous,  at  least  in  their  outward  man,  and  here 
and  there  appeared  a  solitary  American.  I  was  asto- 
nished at  the  throngs  of  Turkish  women,  and  to  see 
them  moving  about  at  liberty,  excepting  some  of  those 
belonging  to  the  harems  of  the  great,  who  were  seated 

in  gaudy  arubas  drawn  by  grey  oxen After 

the  crowd  had  remained  for  hours  in  the  most  exem- 
plary endurance  of  a  hot  sun  and  clouds  of  dust,  the 
approach  of  the  cavalcade  was  announced  by  the  roar 
of  cannon,  and  long  trains  of  cavalry  and  infantry  soon 
appeared,  followed  by  the  Seraskier  Pasha,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  army.  He  was  a  short  and 
stout  personage,  with  an  intelligent  face  and  a  silvery 
beard,  the  same  that  now  holds  the  first  place  in  the 
councils  of  the  new  Sultan.  After  him  came  a  beau- 
tiful carriage  drawn  by  four  horses,  moving  in  solemn 
state  in  the  van  of  the  Sultan's  body-guard.  The 
crowd  bent  eagerly  forward  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
royal  person.  But  he  was  not  there.  The  interior 
was  occupied  only  by  the  likeness  of  himself,  the  por- 
trait for  which  all  this  stir  and  ceremony  had  been 
created,  laid  carefully  upon  luxurious  cushions, .  and 
covered  with  a  rich  cloth.  The  procession  entered 
beneath  the  arch  that  led  to  the  interior  court  of  the 
barracks,  where  the  act  of  presentation  was  performed. 
It  consisted  simply  of  a  prayer  offered  by  an  Imaum,  at 


Chap,  XXU.  PORTRAITS  OP  THE  SULTAN.  285 

the  close  of  which  the  multitude  responded  with  a  loud 
Amen. 

"  I  went  away  from  the  scene  lost  in  reflection. 
^  Here,'  said  I  to  myself  ^  is  a  palpable  violation  of  the 
commands  of  the  Koran,  and  a  gross  outrage  upon 
the  prejudices  of  Mussulmans,  perpetrated  by  the  ac* 
knowledged  head  of  the  religion,  and  the  avowed  suc- 
cessor of  its  founder.  And  it  is  just  such  as  would 
most  scandalize  serious  and  devout  Mahomedans.  It  is 
the  representation  of  the  human  form,  which  is  of  all 
most  offensive  to  them ;  and  even  that  is  not  a  work  of 
&ncy,  which  would  be  regarded  with  greater  indul- 
gence, but  an  actual  resemblance  of  a  living  person ; 
and  to  aggravate  the  insult  to  religion  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, without  commanding  adoration,  this  painted  re- 
semblance is  conveyed  along  the  public  ways,  with 
military  pomp  and  amidst  the  roar  of  cannon,  conse- 
cratS^y  Ae  Lred  forms  of  religion,  and  set  u;  before 
tibe  eyes  of  all  men.  Even  to  the  subjects  of  a  Chris- 
tian prince,  such  an  act  would  appear  like  an  aspiration 
to  divine  honours,  but  to  a  Mussulman  it  must  seem 
downright  idolatry.'  *'  * 

Like  other  men,  the  Ulema,  after  giving  up  vital 
principles  of  faith  and  practice,  cling  with  a  desperate 
grasp  to  the  most  contemptible  trifles ;  and  the  re- 
formers, who  have  ridden  over  them  rough-shod,  who 
have  infringed  the  law  of  the  Prophet  in  numberless 
important  points,  draw  rein  and  bow  the  head  at  petty 
scruples  like  these.  Some  few  of  the  boys  here  were 
wearing  iJieir  uniform,  which,  though  made  of  Fez- 

*  Tour  throtigh  Annenia,  Persia^  &c.     New  Tork,  1840.     Vol.  i. 
pp.  79-81. 


286  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXU, 

Khaneh  cloth,  was  neat  and  becoming  enough — blue 
frock  coaty  with  red  collar  and  cafhy  and  blue  panta- 
loons with  the  red  stripe — ^but  the  rest  were  clad  in 
yillainous  loose  great-coats;  and  all  were  to  the  last 
degree  slovenly  about  the  feet  The  dormitories  were 
not  bad,  but  far  from  being  so  airy  and  good  as  those 
at  the  upper  school.  The  refectory  was  very  neat  and 
clean^  the  diet  liberal.  We  saw  the  tables  laid ;  there 
were  clean  tablecloths,  clean  pewter  plates,  neat 
knives  and  forks,  decanters,  drinking  glasses,  Frank 
benches,  chairs,  etc.  Twenty  years  ago  such  things 
would  certainly  have  appeared  most  marvellous  and 
unorthodox.  This  academy  was  established  by  Sultan 
Mahmoud. 

On  the  left  bank  of  the  Golden  Horn,  considerably 
above  the  Arsenal,  under  the  great  Jewish  cemetery, 
in  a  low,  damp,  close,  and  most  unhealthy  situation^ 
there  was  another  military  school,  erected  by  Mahmoud's 
cousin  and  predecessor,  Sultan  Selim,  whose  reforms  and 
inroads  on  the  Janizaries  and  Ulema  cost  him  his  life. 
Into  this  small,  confined  establishment  I  could  never 
get  access.  I  believe  that  hardly  anything  was  done  in 
it,  and  that  the  Turks  were  ashamed  of  its  being  seen. 
Some  told  me  that  there  were  about  thirty  young  men 
studying  in  it  for  engineer  officers ;  others  assured  me 
that  there  were  only  two  old  Turkish  professors  and 
five  or  six  students,  who  were  all  obliged  to  run  away 
from  the  unhealthy  spot  as  soon  as  the  hot  weather 
commenced. 

To  the  Naval  School  in  the  Arsenal  we  had  free 
access  at  any  time.  The  buildmg,  which  had  formerly 
been  the  Turkish  Admiralty,  was  appropriately  and 


Chap.  XXH.     NAVAL  SCHOOL  AT  THE  ABSENAL.  287 

beautiiully  situated  on  the  spur  of  a  hill  overlooking 
the  docks,  the  shipyards,  the  marine-barracks,  the 
splendid  port,  and  the  Ottoman  fleet  then  lying  there  at 
anchor.  It  was  a  tolerably  good  stone  building,  looking 
very  well  at  a  certain  distance.  But  no  school  was 
open;  no  instruction  had  been  given  there  for  many 
months.  Halil,  the  new  Capitan  Pasha,  must  needs 
signalize  his  accession  to  office  by  remodelling  the  esta- 
blishment, and  by  enlarging  the  building,  which,  for  all 
usefiil  purposes,  was  quite  large  enough  before. 

The  place  was  now  in  the  possession  of  Armenian 
masons,  carpenters,  joiners,  plasterers,  and  painters,  and 
was  not  likely  to  be  evacuated  by  them  for  months  to 
come.  The  additions  to  the  building  were  nearly 
entirely  of  wood — ^woodwork  tacked  to  the  original 
stonework.  When  the  wood  takes  fire,  as  it  is  sure  to 
do  some  day,  the  stone  will  hardly  be  safe.^ 

They  were  q)ending  a  deal  of  time  and  money  in 
fitting  out  a  reception-room  for  the  Sultan,  in  which 
there  was  to  be  a  splendid  sofa,  a  gilded  fauteuil  and 
all  that  paraphernalia,  of  which  every  item  is  con- 
trary to  the  law  of  the  Prophet  Maps,  books,  instru- 
ments, were  all  locked  up  in  closets  to  preserve  them 
from  the  terrible  dust  the  Armenians  were  making. 
Nominally  there  were  140  students ;  but  we  could  never 
see  more  than  about  twenty  dirty  youths,  who  were 
doing  absolutely  nothing.  They  were  keeping  up  all 
the  while  a  numerous  and  expensive  teaching  stsS, 
including  one  or  two  Frenchmen.  All  these  learned 
professors  were  receiving  their  high  monthly  salaries, 

*  The  ayeiagie  life  of  a  house  in  ConBtaxitinople  is  calculated,  I  beHevey 
at  seren  yeara^^ 


288  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXn. 

and  doing — what  their  pupils  were  doing.  The  Capitan 
Pasha,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  sea,  or  of  navigation  or 
astronomy  or  of  any  other  science,  was  in  no  hurry. 
He  seemed  to  be  contented  with  reflecting  that  he  was 
making  the  building  a  good  deal  bigger,  and  that  some 
day  or  other  the  Sultan  would  come  in  state  to  see  it 
finished  and  with  its  first  varnish  on.  Oh  this  waste, 
this  fearfiil  waste  of  money  extorted  firom  a  beggared 
people!  Here  again  the  Armenian  hoof  or  paw  is 
visible.  The  architects,  the  contractors,  and  the 
builders  are  almost  invariably  Armenians,  who  are  sup- 
ported by,  and  go  shares  with,  the  great  seraSs.  These 
bankers,  who  brought  every  establishment  of  government 
into  their  debt,  were  constantly  ui^ng  the  pashas  to 
commit  new  acts  of  extravagance;  and  when  the 
Armenian  creditor  vigorously  pushed  any  plan,  it  was 
rarely  that  his  Turkish  debtor  could  offer  any  opposi- 
tion. Tired  out  with  doing  nothing,  and  being  anxious 
to  earn  honourably  the  salary  which — though  irre- 
gularly— he  did  receive,  our  firiend  Mr.  Sang,  at  the 
end  of  February,  volunteered  to  teach  mathematics, 
geography,  and  astronomy  to  the  pupils  of  the  naval 
school.  He  spoke  to  the  Capitan  Pasha,  who  said  that 
it  would  be  a  very  good  thing ;  that  as  Mr.  Sang  knew 
Turkish  so  well,  it  would  be  a  great  advantage;  but 
he  afterwards  showed  a  lukewarmness  in  the  business* 
Some  other  pashas  employed  about  the  Arsenal  or  the 
fleet  took  up  the  subject  with  more  zeal.  Among 
these  was  young  Mustapha  Pasha,  who  had  been 
(for  the  sake  of  instruction)  nine  years  on  board  of 
English  men-of-war,  and  who  (although  he  never  asked 
us  to  his  house)  was  one  of  the  very  few  Turks  that 


Chap.  XXH.    MR.  SANG  AND  THE  NAVAL  SCHOOL.  289 

seemed  remindiul  of  the  kindnesses  they  had  received 
in  England. 

Mustapha  represented  that  Mr.  Sang  was  the  very 
man  they  most  wanted  in  the  naval  school,  that  his 
facility  in  demonstration  and  explanation,  his  quickness 
in  illustrating  a  suhject,  his  patience  and  his  calm 
amiable  temper  would  endear  him  to  his  students  and 
render  him  a  perfect  treasure.  At  last  it  was  deter- 
mined that  Mr.  Sang  should  be  invited  to  the  naval 
school.  But  when  the  Armenian  Dadians,  who  for  the 
space  of  five  years  had  condemned  this  invaluable  man 
to  a  condition  of  utter  uselessness,  heard  of  the  intended 
move,  they  raised  a  moaning  and  an  outcry,  protesting 
that  they  could  not  spare  him  from  the  imperial  manu- 
factories at  Zeitoun  Boumu,  vowing  that  they  could 
not  possibly  do  without  Mr.  Sang.  Now,  except  in 
giving  good  scientific  advice  which  had  not  in  one  single 
instance  been  followed  by  the  Armenians,  Mr.  iSang 
had  done  nothing  in  those  factories  and  had  nothing  to 
do,  nor  was  there  a  chance  or  a  likelihood  of  his  having 
anything  to  do  there  for  the  Armenians.  In  Mr. 
Thorman,  another  British  subject,  they  had  a  most 
competent  and  excellent  director  at  Zeitoun  Bournu. 
As  I  have  said  before,  they  had  never  given  our  friend 
the  means  of  doing  or  even  of  beginning  any  one  thing  in 
the  line  of  his  profession.  He  waited  upon  Halil  Pasha 
and  assured  him  that  the  Dadians  neither  had  made 
use  of  him  nor  ever  intended  to  do  so.  Halil  could 
only  reply  to  Mr.  Sang,  that  the  Dadians  now  said  that 
they  wanted  him,  and  that  he  must  therefore  remain 
with  them. 

In  the  end  the  matter  was  referred  to  Sultan  Abdul 

VOL.  IL  u 


290  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

Medjid  himself.  The  young  Sultan  determined  and 
decreed  that  Mr.  Sang  should  go  to  the  naval  school. 
But  even  after  this  there  was  practically  a  yielding  to 
the  Armenians,  and  a  ridiculous  compromise.  Mr.  Sang 
was  to  divide  himself  or  his  time  into  two  equal  parts, 
one  for  the  Sultan,  and  one  for  the  Armenians ;  he  was 
to  attend  three  days  in  the  week  at  the  school,  but  the 
other  three  days  he  was  to  be  at  the  manufactories,  in 
case  the  Dadians  might  want  him.  Geltii^  one  room 
put  into  something  like  order,  he  commenced  his  tuition 
in  the  naval  school  about  the  beginning  of  May.  He 
had  only  about  twenty  pupils,  but  they  were  docile  and 
willing,  and  he  thought  that  ten  or  twelve  of  the  number 
would  really  make  excellent  mathematicians.  Toung 
Mustapha  Pasha  had  not  miscalculated  the  effect  his 
character  would  produce  on  the  young  men  :  they 
treated  him  with  the  greatest  respect,  were  always  eager 
at  his  coming  and  sorry  at  his  going.  And  it  was  in 
the  genial  nature  of  this  quiet  but  warm-hearted  Scotch- 
man  to  take  into  affection  all  those  whom  he  could 
teach  and  improve.  Besides  Emin  Pasha,  who  had 
gained  golden  opinions  even  at  Cambridge,  several 
others  who  had  been  educated  in  Europe  were  said  to 
have  given  proofs  of  a  facility  in  acquiring  mathematical 
knowledge.  There  are  several  Turkish  books  on  these 
sciences.  In  the  Arsenal  young  Mustapha  Pasha  ^owed 
us  a  small  library  that  was  almost  entirely  mathematicaL 
We  noticed  the  translation  of  an  elementary  French 
work,  in  one  volume ;  a  translation  of  a  French  work 
on  arithmetic,  algebra,  and  astronomy,  in  three  volumes ; 
a  translation,  from  a  French  version,  of  Bonnycastle*s 
^Algebra,'  and  a  translation  of  Euclid,  with  copious 


C^4P.  XXn,    MR.  SANG  AITD  THE  NAVAL  SCHOOL.  291 

notes,  by  Husseio  Effibndi,  who  flouished  at  the  begin* 
Ding  of  the  j^esent  c^ituiy,  and  was  much  patronised 
by  the  unjfortanate  Sultan  Selim.  The  preface  to  this 
last  work  states  that  the  translator,  Hussein  Effendi, 
had  been  assorted  by  and  greatiy  indebted  to  *^an 
English  officer  and  mathematifsian,'*  who  having  been 
converted  to  the  true  MussuUnan  faith,  took  the  name 
of  jBeGsn,  and,  on  account  of  his  science,  was  called 
6eHm  HffendEu  Mr.  Sang,  who  had  a  copy  of  it,  de- 
scribed this  as  being  a  truly  »^lent  work :  the  re- 
dundancies w^re  thrown  out,  and  the  general  arrange- 
ment was  improved;  the  notes,  which  bad  evidently 
been  all  lumished  by  tilie  Englishman,  were  admirably 
clear  and  neat,  bdx>keniog  extraordinary  acquirements 
in  the  man  who  had  written  them.  On  the  whole,  Mr. 
Sai%  was  inclined  to  think  that  this  Turkish  Eiadiid  was 
the  b^  Euclid  he  had  ever  met  with^  This  was  the 
book  he  used  in  the  Naval  Academy*  It  had  been 
printed  at  Constanlinople  about  the  year  1806.  None 
xii  us  were  able  to  ascertain  the  history,  or  the  ^id,  or 
ev<en  the  En^sh  name  of  this  accomplished  English 
ren^adeu  In  all  probabQity  he  died  in  some  corner  of 
this  barbarous  capital  in  poverty  and  obscurity,  such 
having  been  almost  invariably  the  fate  of  Frank  rene- 
gades* Or  he  might  have  pmshed  in  that  slaughter  of 
reformers  and  educationists  whidbi  took  place  at  the 
down&l  <^  Sultan  Selim.  Our  friend  Achmet  Effendi 
had  an  indiatinct  recoltection  of  hearing  his  late  father 
(himself  a  Turk  of  rare  acquhrements)  speak  of  the 
English  mathematiqian  who  had  been  disgraced  m  his 
own  Goisntry,  and  driven  from  it;  and  in  1828,  wh«n  I 
was  making  some  inquiries  about  Selim  Effendi,  my  old 

u2 


292  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXII. 

friend  Constantine  2ohrab  told  me  that  he  remembered 
in  his  earlier  days  that  there  was  an  English  renegade, 
reputed  a  man  of  great  science,  who  was  in  high  favour 
with  Sultan  Selim,  but  who  was  shunned  by  all  his 
countrymen,  and  lived  like  a  Turk  in  one  of  the  most 
Turkish  quarters  of  the  city.  No  doubt  the  whole 
story  was  a  dark  one. 

Somewhat  more  than  a  year  before  our  arrival,  Reschid 
Pasha  had  recommended  and  Abdul  Medjid  had  decreed 
that  a  stately  university  should  be  erected  near  to  the 
grand  mosque  of  Santa  Sophia,  in  an  open  square  on 
the  site  of  one  of  the  barracks  of  the  destroyed  Jani- 
zaries ;  that  this  university  should  be  provided  with  the 
most  eminent  professors,  and  endowed  with  &nds  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  vast  number  of  students,  and  that 
the  course  of  study  should  be  assimilated  to  that  of  the 
best  universities  in  Christendom.  The  stone  was  laid 
with  great  pomp  and  ceremony,  and  with  a  wonderful 
flourishing  of  trumpets  by  the  Pera  journalists.  Before 
leaving  England  we  had  read  in  the  *  Journal  de  Con- 
stantinople '  accounts  of  this  splendid  university  of  Djeb 
Khaneh,  which  had  induced  us  to  believe  that  we  should 
find  it,  if  not  finished  and  furnished,  at  least  approaching 
its  completion.  The  stone  was  laid  on  the  1st  of  Sep- 
tember, 1846 :  our  first  visit  to  the  spot  was  in  February, 
1848.  We  found  that  the  building  was  scarcely  any- 
where more  than  six  feet  above  the  level  of  the  ground, 
and  that  the  works  had  long  been  languishing  for  want 
of  funds.  A  short  time  afler  receiving  intelligence  of 
the  new  French  revolution,  the  Porte  stopped  the  works 
altogether,  and  they  were  not  resumed  in  July,  when 
we  took  our  departure.     According  to  the  original  plan 


Chap,  XXH.  PROJECTED  UNIVERSITY.  293 

the  edifice  wias  to  be  built  entirely  of  stone.  The  archi- 
tect was  an  Italian  from  Lombardy,  Signor  Fossati  by 
name,  who  was  employed  at  the  same  time  in  repairing^ 
the  interior  of  Santa  Sophia.  With  their  usual  flatter- 
ing precipitancy,  the  Armenian  Dooz-Oglous  who  con* 
trol  the  imperial  Mint,  had  instructed  the  architect  to 
make  the  design  for  a  splendid  medal  commemorative 
of  the  creation  of  the  university.  Signor  Fossati  had 
made  a  very  pretty  drawing,  in  which  were  represented 
the  university  {as  it  was  to  be)j  the  contiguous  dome  of 
Santa  Sophia,  a  section  of  the  Serraglio  palace,  a  part 
of  the  port,  and  some  of  the  mosques,  barracks,  and 
other  buildings  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Golden 
Horn ;  and  this  design  had  been  put  into  the  hands  of 
our  friend  Mr.  James  Robertson,  engraver  to  the  Mint, 
in  order  that  he  might  forthwith  prepare  a  die.* 

We  were  told  of  a  new  school  over  in  Constantinople 
for  the  education  of  civil  servants  of  Government,  but 
we  could  discover  neither  the  place  where  it  existed  nor 
any  person  who  had  seen  it. 

I  could  not  discover  or  hear  of  any  improvement  in 
the  common  Mussulman  schools  in  any  place.  Most 
of  those  attached  to  the  mosques  were  shut  up.  In 
others  little  boys  were  merely  learning  to  repeat  the 
Koran  by  rote,  under  the  tuition  of  drowsy  old  kliodjas 
who  were  most  wretchedly  paid.     The  funds  which  had 

♦  There  was  quite  a  rage  for  medals  and  decorations.  The  Sultan  was 
giving  yahans  to  all  sorts  of  people,  including  the  **  illustrious  obscure." 
One  spring  morning  he  conferred  that  decoration  on  the  son  of  his  Perote 
bootmaker — a  rough  uneducated  boy,  who  could  not  even  make  boots. 
The  officers  and  soldiers  who  had  been  engaged  in  Kurdistan  against  Bedr- 
Khan  Bey  had  all  medals,  designed  by  Signor  Fossati,  and  engraved  by 
Mr.  J.  R.  Here  the  design  was  very  simple,  being  merely  some  mountain- 
tops,  which  were  to  be  considered  as  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan. 


294  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIL 

supported  the  old  schools  were  nearly  all  seized,  wasted, 
gone.  There  was  a  grand  new  scheme  of  education 
Upon  paper,  but  it  was  only  upon  paper.  There 
was  a  Board  of  Education,  with  pashas  and  effendis, 
who  were  receiving  high  salaries  and  doing  nothing. 
^  The  truth  is,"  said  an  intelligent  Turk,  who  was  him- 
self a  reformer  with  a  European  education,  '^  we  have 
no  competent  instructors  to  put  into  tiiese  new  schools ; 
and,  just  now,  money  is  very  scarce.  Nothing  can  be 
done  until  we  get  competent  Turkish  masters,  and  these 
are  not  to  be  made  in  a  day.  In  the  Council  there 
is  a  talk  of  establishing  a  few  Normal  schools  for  the 
training  of  teachers  in  the  capital,  whence^  in  three  or 
four  years,  a  portion  of  them  may  be  drafted  to  the 
provinces  to  take  charge  of  the  schools  that  are  erected 
or  to  be  established  there.  The  old  khodjas,  with 
nothing  but  their  obsolete  Mussulman  learning,  will  not 
do  for  our  purpose ;  and  then  there  are  so  very  few*  of 
them  left  I  When  we  get  a  good  stock  of  young  teachers, 
all  educated  alia  Franca^  and  without  any  old  Mui^ulman 
prgudices^  then  we  shall  be  able  really  to  begin  to  edu- 
cate the  people.  Now,  we  can  only  talk ;  we  have  no 
instruments  with  which  to  begin.  This  is  the  plain 
truth." 

Meanwhile  not  only  the  more  intellectual  Greeks,  but 
also  the  plodding  Armenians  of  the  capital  are  increas* 
ing  and  rather  rapidly  improving  their  schools. 

There  were  many  and  very  commendable  improve- 
ments in  the  military  and  other  hospitals.    The  first 
hospital  we  visited  was  that  attached  to  the  artillery 
barracks  at  Tophana.    The  building  was  mean  and  bad, 
and^  in  a  sanitary  point  of  veiw,  the  situation  was  not 


JK.-,' 


Chap.  XXIL  THE  MIUTARY  HOSPITALS.  295 

good  ;  but  the  order  and  attendaoce  were  deserying  of 
all  praise.  There  was  a  proper  division  of  wards.  Those 
patients  suffering  from  contagious  disorders  were  now 
kept  apart ;  all  the  maladies  incident  to  poor  humanity 
were  not  mixed  and  huddled  together  as  in  former 
times.  The  wards  were  clean,  the  sick  had  mattresses 
and  bedding  and  iron  bedsteads,  the  diet  was  good,  and 
die  physicians  could  order  without  stint  that  which  they 
thought  best  for  their  patients.  A  Turk,  of  course, 
held  the  nominal  rank  and  received  the  high  pay,  but 
the  real  medical  chief  of  this  establishment  was  a  clever, 
well-informed  Frank,  the  son  or  grandson  of  an  Italian 
|Nractitioner,  a  member  of  one  of  the  very  few  Perote 
families  that  were  distinguished  by  good  taste  and  good 
principles.  He  had  studied  in  the  University  of  Pisa 
and  at  Florence ;  and  besides  being  skilled  in  his  pro- 
fession, he  was  a  good  classical  scholar.  His  assistants 
were  all  young  Mussulmans  who  had  studied  in  the 
Galata  SeraL  Some  of  these  made  tolerably  good  hos- 
pital mates.  One  of  them  spoke  French  very  well,  and 
had  a  decided  turn  for  translation  and  literary  compo- 
sition. He  had  put  into  choice  Turkish  some  of  the 
most  spicy  passages  of  Voltaire's  *  Dictionruzire  Philo^ 
^ophique.'  A  friend,  who  was  with  us,  asked  him  what 
he  was  doing  now.  He  was  translating  Voltaire's 
♦  romans :'  he  had  nearly  done  *  Candide,'  which  he 
found  very  amusing  and  delighful. 

The  Marine  Hospital  behind  the  Arsenal,  on  one 
of  the  hills  which  overlook  the  valley  of  Piali  Pasha, 
was  not  in  such  good  order,  but  it  was  a  model  esta- 
blishment compared  with  what  Turkish  hospitals  had 
.been  in  my  time.    The  grand  military  hospital — across 


1 


296  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

the  Bospfaorus  in  Asia,  in  the  rear  of  the  vast  Scutari 
barracks  erected  by  Sultan  Mahmoud — was  the  most 
spacious  and  finest  establishment  of  the  sort  I  ever 
visited  in  any  country.  It  stands  completely  isolated, 
on  a  down-like,  gentle  elevation,  having  in  front  the 
beautiful  expanse  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora,  and  in  the 
rear  the  grand  cemetery  of  Scutari,  with  its  forest  of 
sad  odorous  cypresses — a  scene  immortalized  in  *  Anas* 
tasius,'  and  an  imperishable  part  of  the  memory  of  every 
man  of  taste  and  feeling  that  has  once  beheld  it.  The 
edifice  was  solidly  built  of  stone ;  it  had  no  elevation^ 
but  its  dimensions,  in  length  and  breadth,  were  im- 
posing. This  struck  us,  although  we  had  just  come 
from  tiie  vast  barracks  close  by.  The  airy,  open  cor- 
ridors were  truly  magnificent ;  and  never  was  English 
drawing-room  kept  more  pure  and  spotless.  In  the 
midst  of  the  inner  court — a  spacious,  airy  quadrangle — 
were  a  curious  flower-garden,  as  yet  in  its  infancy,  a 
pretty  fountain,  and  a  pleasant  kiosk,  where  some  con- 
valescent soldiers  were  inhaling  the  breeze  which  came 
down  the  Bosphorus,  and  basking  in  the  genial  sun  of 
early  spring.  Throughout,  the  place  looked  more  like 
a  palace  &an  an  hospital  for  poor  soldiers.  The  wards, 
which  opened  on  the  splendid  corridors,  were  most  com* 
fortable  and  even  elegant  apartments,  with  excellent 
iron  bedsteads,  and  the  cleanest  beds  and  bedding.  The 
supply  of  clean  linen  was  unlimited ;  the  rooms  were 
airy  and  cheerful ;  and  in  every  one  of  them  there  was 
a  pretty  vase  or  vases  of  artificial  flowers  to  recreate 
the  eyes  of  the  sick  and  suffering.  So  delicate  an 
attention  to  a  poor  rude  soldiery  I  had  never  wit- 
nessed.     There  were  vapour-baths   lined  with  piu^e. 


Chap.  XXH.  THE  MIUTABY  HOSPITALS.  297 

white,  bona  fide  marble,  which  a  Sultan  might  have 
used.  All  the  offices  were  spacious,  well  furnished  and 
provided,  and  scrupulously  dean.  There  was  a  kitchen 
that  made  us  blush  for  the  kitchen  at  Greenwich  Hos- 
pital These  were  not  mere  show-rooms  that  I  saw : 
we  did  not  leave  unvisited  one  ward  or  apartment  or 
room.  There  was  the  same  neatness,  good  order,  and 
cleanliness  everywhere.  The  different  disorders  were 
nicely  separated  and  warded  In  every  ward  there  hung 
against  the  wall  a  tablet,  on  which  were  registered  the 
names  of  the  patients  there,  the  dates  of  their  admission, 
the  diagnostics  of  the  disease,  and  the  progress  of  the 
cure.  Daily  reports  were  made  to  the  Hekim  Bashi ; 
and  the  attendance  of  the  medical  men  at  the  bedsides 
of  the  patients  seemed  to  be  very  regular  and  careiuK 
We  went  with  one  of  the  chief  doctors  on  his  rounds. 
We  were  told  that  there  were  several"  suspicious  cholera 
cases ;  but  I  had  long  since  convinced  myself  that, 
whatever  else  it  might  be,  this  dreadful  disease  was  not 
contagious. 

Except  two  or  three  soldiers,  who  were  labouring 
under  acute  disorders,  suffering  agonies,  and  crying 
^^Amaun!  Amaunr  all  these  poor  Turks  were  sitting  up 
in  their  beds,  on  their  heels,  and  looking  the  very  per- 
sonifications of  patience.  I  noticed  in  other  hospitals  that 
they  were  always  sitting  up  in  this  fashion  in  the  daytime. 
It  is  their  habitual  posture.  A  Turk  has  no  taste  for 
the  horiEontal  position ;  no  conception  of  the  pleasure  of 
Ijring  at  full  length  in  bed :  he  never  stretches  himself 
out  (if  he  can  possibly  sit  upright  on  his  heels)  until 
he  is  overcome  by  sleep  or  is  touching  on  his  dissolution, 
I  was  told  that  not  unfrequently  they  died  in  their  habi- 


298  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXTT. 

tual  position.  There  was  a  sufficient  variety  of  diseases 
to  remind  one  of  the  numerous  ills  which  flesh  is  heir  to. 
The  most  prevalent  disorder  was  pulmonary  consumption, 
with  bronchitis.  To  the  young  recruits  from  the  hot,  low- 
lying  regions  of  Asia  Minor,  the  rude  winter  and  change* 
able  climate  of  Constantinople  were  very  &tal.  Often  in 
my  matutine  excursions,  when  the  snow  was  deep  and  the 
wind  cruelly  cold  and  cutting,  I  have  heard  these  young 
Asiatics,  on  guard,  most  audibly  coughing  their  own 
knells.  The  fearfully  high  mortality  last  winter  in  the 
Arsenal  had  not  all  been  attributable  to  cholera :  diseases 
of  the  lungs  had  swelled  it. 

The  loss  among  these  Asiatics  had  been  so  serious,  that 
the  Porte  had  turned  its  attention  to  the  subject.  The 
great  men  had  even  adopted  as  wise  principles,  that  the 
young  recruits  from  the  very  hot  parts  of  Asia  Minor 
should  be  regimented  at  Smyrna,  and  sent  to  serve  in 
the  genial  climate  of  Syria  and  Palestine ;  and  that  the 
garrison  of  Constantinople,  the  garrisons  on  the  Danube 
— ^where  the  winter  is  tremendous — and  other  corps 
exposed  to  inclement  weather,  should  be  reinforced 
from  the  European  provinces,  from  the  mountainous 
parts  of  Asia,  the  hardy  regions  on  the  Black  Sea,  &c. 
But  all  this  remained  purely  theoretical  or  intentional ; 
no  order  was  taken,  no  such  distinctions  were  drawn ; 
recruits  were  dragged  up  to  the  capital  fix>m  whatsoever 
district  they  could  be  found  in ;  and  the  natives  of  the 
sunny  Ionia  and  glowing  Lydia  were  brought  to  shiver, 
to  contract  disease,  and  die.  I  was  assured  by  several 
medical  men  that  the  ratio  of  mortality  among  these 
Asiatics,  from  pulmonary  complaints  alone^  was  quite 
fearful.     In  that  spirit  of  compromise-making,  to  which 


Chap.  XXU.  PULMONARY  COMPLADTTS. '  299 

I  have  so  often  been  obliged  to  allude,  the  soldiers,  who 
(bating  the  yile,  pernicious,  red  skull-caps)  were  other- 
wise dressed  as  Christian  soldiers,  were  not  allowed  any 
stocks  or  cravatB  by  the  government  This  deficiency 
of  neck-covering,  besides  giving  them  a  slovenly,  ruf- 
fianly appearance,  could  not  but  be  injurious  to  their 
health  in  such  a  climate.  The  men  sometimes  bought 
cotton  handkerchief  for  themselves,  and  wore  them 
round  their  necks  like  ropes. 

After  going  the  rounds  with  the  doctor  we  saw  and 
tasted  some  of  the  dinners  that  were  served  up  to  the 
sick  and  the  convalescent  The  dishes  were  all  good  in 
their  several  kinds ;  the  soup  was  admirable ;  so  was  the 
rice  pilaff;  some  of  the  stewed  meats  and  light  savoury 
dobnoLS  might  shame  our  English  domestic  cookery.  I 
had  no  difficulty  in  believing  the  Hekim  who  told  us 
that  the  cooks  we  had  seen  at  work  in  the  kitchen  were 
men  that  had  been  chosen  with  care  and  that  knew  their 
metier.  The  spacious  pharmacy  was  so  orderly,  clean, 
sweetly  savoured,  and  elegant,  that  even  medicine 
looked  relishable  in  it 

I  believe  that  this  rare  hospital  was  then  exclusively 
devoted  to  the  soldiery  of  the  imperial  guards.  The 
Sultan  had  the  establishment  much  at  heart,  and  was 
always  making  inquiries  about  it  His  positive  and 
reiterated  commands  were  that  his  poor  soldiers  should 
want  for  nothing,  that  no  comfort  should  be  denied  them 
that  money  could  procure.  He  had  paid  several  visits 
to  the  hospital.  In  the  summer  of  1847  he  looked  in 
quite  unexpectedly  and  went  all  over  it  Unannounced 
visits  like  this  might  be  of  great  benefit  in  many  other 
establishments ;  they  would  enable  the  young  sovereign 


300  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXTT. 

to  see  things  with  his  own  eyes ;  they  would  keep  his 
officers  and  employes  on  the  alert  and  constantly  up  to 
their  duty ;  they  would  do  away  with  the  impositions 
practised  upon  him  by  shows  prepared  beforehand ;  but 
Abdul  Medjid  is  little  given  to  locomotion,  and,  unfor- 
tunately, he  fancies  he  can  never  go  anywhere  without 
making  a  display  of  royal  generosity  and  lavishing 
large  sums  in  backshish.  If  he  went  about  more,  this 
backshish  alone  would  ruin  him.  At  his  last  unex- 
pected visit  he  gave  the  amount  of  a  full  month's  pay 
to  every  doctor,  to  every  hospital  mate,  and  to  every 
employe  in  the  place,  and  50  piastres  to  every  one  of 
the  sick  soldiers.  The  hospital  was  capable  of  contain- 
ing, without  any  crowding,  about  600  men.  In  the 
winter  months,  and  at  the  change  of  the  season,  it 
had  lodged  400  patients.  As  spring  advanced  the 
number  was  reduced  to  170.  A  good  many  had  not 
gone  back  to  their  ranks,  but  had  taken  up  the  closest 
quarters  in  the  crowded,  interminable,  and  ever-increas- 
ing cemetery  in  the  rear.  In  the  month  of  June,  as 
the  cholera  grew  worse,  we  were  told  that  the  hospital 
was  crowded.  Here,  too,  the  nominal  head  was  a  Turk, 
and  the  real  acting  Hekim  Bashi  a  Ferote  Frank. 
Signor  de  Castro  was  an  Israelite  descended  from  one 
of  the  very  many  families  of  Spanish  Jews  that  have  at 
various  times  settled  in  the  Ottoman  dominions.  He 
enjoyed  British  protection — ^he  was  an  English  prch 
tected  subject ;  he  had  resided  in  the  Ionian  Islands,  and 
had  studied  medicine  and  surgery  in  France ;  he  was 
very  polite,  kind,  and  communicative,  and  he  appeared 
to  be  not  only  well  qualified  for  his  office,  but  active  in 
the  discharge  of  all  his  duties. 


Chap.  XXH.         "  STSTEME  DE  LA  NATURE."  301 

I  had,  at  last,  in  this  military  hospital  at  Scutari, 
found  something  in  Turkey  upon  which  I  could  bestow 
an  almost  unqualified  praise.  Tet  I  could  not  leave 
even  this  establishment  without  meeting  with  evidence 
of  the  rapid  progress  of  Gallic  philosophism. 

We  were  invited  into  an  elegant  saloon,  set  apart  for 
the  use  of  the  doctors  and  the  young  Turks  their  assist- 
ants. A  book  was  lying  open  on  the  divan.  I  took 
it  up.  It  was  a  copy  of  a  recent  Paris  edition  of  the 
Atheist's  manual,  ^^  Systeme  de  la  Nature^^  with  the  name 
of  the  Baron  d*Holbach  on  the  title-page  as  the  author.* 
The  volume  had  evidently  been  much  used ;  many  of 
the  striking  passages  had  been  marked,  and  especially 
those  which  mathematically  demonstrated  the  absurdity 
of  believing  in  the  existence  of  a  God  and  the  impos- 
sibility of  believing  in  the  immortality  of  the  souL     As 

I  laid  down  the  volume  one  of  the  Turks  said  to  me, 
"  C*est  un  grand  ouvrage !     C^est  un  grand  philosophe  I 

II  a  taujours  raison. " 

The  military  hospitals  in  the  interior  of  Constan- 
tinople were  very  far  from  being  under  such  good 
management  There  is  no  uniformity  in  any  one 
department  in  this  country.  You  find  the  good  and  the 
bad  side  by  side,  the  quality  depending  on  the  honesty, 
intelligence,  and  activity,  or  the  dishonesty  and  careless- 
ness, of  the  several  administrators.  One  improvement 
however  was,  I  believe,  general ;  this  was  the  division 
of  hospitals  into  warda 

Just  where  the  narrow  Bosphorus  opens  into  the 
broad  Propontis,  close  to  the  water-side,  in  a  recess 

*  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  Baron  d'Holbach  was  not  the  scle  author 
of  this  book. 


302  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH- 

under  the  outer  wall  of  the  Serraglio,  there  is  anotiier 
military  hospital,  very  small,  but  neat,  retired,  quiet, 
and  apparently  well  ordered.  We  frequently  passed 
close  under  it  in  the  summer  time  in  returning  from 
San  Stefano  or  Psammattia,  and  at  that  time  the 
locality  was  charming  and  deliciousiy  cool.  An  unin- 
termitting  breeze  came  down  from  the  Bosphorus,  and 
ihe  rapid  current  of  those  waters  plashing  and  rippling 
against  the  quay  made  music  to  soothe  the  ears  of  the 
sick  and  afflicted. 

The  old  Turkish  hospitals  and  almdiouses,  which 
were  rather  numerous  in  1828,  had  almost  entirely 
disappeared,  together  with  the  Vakouf  funds  which 
had  supported  them.  No  new  and  improved  eharities 
had  been  established  to  supply  the  places  of  the  old 
ones,  which,  in  my  time,  certainly  mudi  needed  im- 
provement. Bad,  however,  as  the  old  hospitals  were, 
they  gave  shelter  and  food  to  many  poor,  aged,  and 
infirm  Mussulmans.  The  government  seems  to  have 
thought  only  of  military  hospitals. 

The  only  new  hospital  for  pow  people  not  connected 
with  army  or  navy  that  I  could  discover  or  hear  oi^  had 
been  built  recently  by  Abdul  Jifedjid's  mother.  On 
Friday  the  3rd  of  March,  I  walked  with  my  friend 
Mr.  Sang,  from  his  curious  house  in  Psammattia  to  this 
new  establishment  We  issued  from  Constantinople  by 
the  gate  of  the  Seven  Towers,  walked  along  by  the 
broad  deep  ditch  and  the  old  ruinous  walls,  and  re- 
entered the  city  (if  city  it  can  here  be  called)  by  the 
Top  Eapou  or  Cannon  Gate,  near  to  which  Mahomet 
II.  made  his  decisive  breach,  and  the  last  of  the  Greek 
emperors,  the  successor  of  a  long  train  of  cowards^  met 


Chap.  XXO.  THE  CANNON  GATE.  303 

the  glorious  death  of  a  soldier  and  patriot.  We 
descended  through  some  rough  and  rather  steep  streets, 
very  thinly  peopled  by  Turks ;  we  passed  sundry  broad, 
yoid  spaces,  as  still  and  solitary  as  if  they  had  been  not 
within  the  walls  of  a  capital  city,  but  in  the  heart  of  a 
desert,  and  at  the  distance  of  about  a  mile  from  the 
walls  we  came  upon  the  new  hospital.  The  buildings 
were  spacious,  of  stone,  solid,  and  as  yet  very  neat. 
There  was  little  attempt  at  decoration ;  but  the  archi- 
tecture was  better  than  that  of  the  new  English  palace 
at  Pera.  The  hospital  was  exceedingly  well  situated. 
The  back  of  it,  on  a  gentle  green  slope,  looked  down 
upon  the  Et  Meidan,  where  the  stupid  Janizaries  were 
knocked  on  the  head  by  Kara  Djhehennum^  or  "  Black 
Hell,''  in  June,  1826.  The  great  open  space  of  the  Et 
Meidan  is  only  part  of  a  valley  which  runs  right  through 
Constantinople,  dividing  it  into  two  pretty  equal  parts, 
entering  the  city  between  the  Top  Gate  and  the  gate 
of  Adrianople,  and  terminating  at  Ylanga  on  the  Sea 
of  Marmora.  This  valley  is  to  be  traced  three  or 
four  miles  beyond  the  land-walls  of  the  city.  The 
Et  Meidan  was  longer  and  wider  than  it  was  in  1 828. 
Many  houses  which  then  stood  upon  it  had  disappeared, 
and  the  streets  opening  upon  it  had  been  materially 
altered,  and  evidently  thinned  in  their  population. 
The  oblong  square  was  now  covered  all  over  with 
pleasant  greensward,  and  at  the  time  of  our  visit  daisies 
and  otlier  gay  spring  flowers  were  growing  on  the  spots 
which  had  been  bespattered  by  the  blood  and  brains  of 
the  Jani2aries.  On  the  scene  of  that  awful  destruction 
we  saw  only  a  few  sheep  with  their  frolicsome  lambs. 
A  pretty  new  mosque,  also  built  and  endowed  by  the 


304  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXII. 

Sultana,  was  attached  to  the  hospital.  The  sick-ward^^ 
were  entered  by  passing  through  a  very  neat  outer 
lodge,  and  crossing  a  large  open  quadrangle  prettily  laid 
out  as  a  flower-garden.  They  reiused  ijs  admittance. 
We  must  bring  an  order  from  the  Greek  renegade 
Ismael  Effendi,  that  Hekim  Bashi  whom  we  could 
never  find.  We  learned  that  a  part  of  the  hospital  was 
devoted  to  female  cases.  As  at  Scutari,  the  cleanliness 
and  order  seemed  to  be  quite  exemplary.  Of  the  skill 
of  the  doctors,  who  were  all  Turks,  some  doubts  might 
be  entertained.  We  were  assured  that  the  revenues 
attached  to  the  hospital  and  mosque  by  the  Sultana 
Valide  were  very  liberal,  that  the  wards  were  supplied 
with  all  necessary  comforts,  and  that  every  possible 
attention  was  paid  to  the  sick.  I  hope  it  is  so:  but 
when  the  Sultana  dies,  who  will  answer  for  the  just 
administration  of  the  revenue  ?  The  Vakouf  no  longer 
offers  any  security  to  such  endowments.  An  inscription 
in  large,  finely  gilded  Arabic  characters,  placed  over 
the  outer  gateway,  informed  us  that  the  hospital  was 
erected  by  the  mother  of  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid,  in  the 
year  of  the  Hegira  1261  (a.d.  1845). 

Ketuming  from  this  visit  to  the  Sultana  Valide*s 
Hospital,  we  passed — in  a  melancholy  lonely  lane — the 
house  of  a  great  pasha  who  had  fallen  into  disgrace. 
All  his  front  windows  were  blinded  and  blocked  up 
with  coarse  deal  boards,  nailed  on  the  outside.  This  is 
still  the  common  practice  on  the  occurrence  of  such  mis- 
fortunes. It  intimates  that  the  pasha  is  secluded  from 
the  world  and  receives  no  company.  The  hint  is  scarcely 
needed,  for  so  soon  as  a  great  man  falls,  or  at  least  so 
soon  as  it  is  well  known  that  his  disgrace  is  real  and 


Uhap.  XXn.  HOSPITAL  FOR  LUNATICS.  305 

likely  to  be  lasting,  his  dearest  friends  turn  their  heads 
from  his  residence,  and  he  is  abandoned  and  shunned 
by  all  his  countless  retainers,  who  hurry  to  some  other 
konack  or  konacks  where  the  sun  is  shining. 

We  were  very  confidently  assured  that  the  hospitals 
for  the  mad  were  vastly  improved.  The  Stamboul 
Bedlam,  par  eosceUence^  was  a  horrible  place  in  1828. 
It  stood  near  the  Hippodrome  and  the  menagerie  of 
wild  beasts :  the  maniacs  were  confined  in  cells,  grated 
in  front  with  massy  iron  grating ;  their  lodgings  were 
very  much  like  the  cages  in  which  the  lions  and  tigers 
were  kept,  and  the  patients  were  treated  very  much 
like  wild  beasts — ^nay,  in  some  respects  their  treatment 
was  harder,  for  the  more  dangerous  of  them  were  loaded 
with  gyves  and  clanking  chains.  I  have  elsewhere  re- 
corded my  horror  at  the  sight*  It  was  a  sight  then 
open  to  everybody  that  chose  to  give  a  few  paras  to 
the  keepers ;  and  these  brutalized  men,  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  unfeeling  spectators,  would  excite  the  poor 
maniacs  as  the  showmen  at  our  fairs  "  stir  up  "  an  old 
lion.  In  1842  this  Bedlam  and  two  or  three  other  old 
madhouses  were  shut  up,  the  insane  males  were  all  con- 
centrated in  an  hospital  attached  to  the  Suleimanieh 
Mosque,  and  all  the  females  in  an  hospital  adjoining 
the  Khasseky  Mosque.  It  was  said  that  these  two 
establishments  were  put  upon  a  good  footing — that  a 
regular  hygeic  system  was  enforced— that  the  strait- 
waistcoat  had  been  substituted  for  iron  shackles — and 
that  stripes  and  all  cruel  treatment  were  strictly  foi- 
bidden.f     I  cannot  testify  to  the  truth  of  these  state* 

♦  See  "  Constantinople  in  1828.'* 

t  See  Mr.  White's  "  Three  Years  in  Constantinople."    London,  1846, 

VOL.  II.  X 


806  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXH. 

ments ;  for  although  I  tried  to  get  admittance  into  the 
male  hospital,  I  did  not  succeed.  A  Turkish  acquaint- 
ance, who  might  have  rendered  this  service,  ^owed  so 
much  aversion  to  it  that  I  could  not  press  him  further. 
That  Bedlam  was  as  impenetrable  as  ever  the  Bastille 
at  Paris  could  have  been.  According  to  a  very  gene)*al 
report,  it  was  now  turned  rather  frequently  into  Bastille 
purposes ;  and  when  men  murmured  at  the  innovations 
of  government,  or  railed  against  the  progress  of  reform, 
they  were  pretty  sure  to  get  a  lodging  at  the  Suleima- 
nieh.  It  was  one  of  the  dogmas  of  Beschid  Pasha's 
school  that  all  Mussulman  religious  feeling  was  sheer 
fanaticism,  and  that  all  fanaticism  was  madness.  In 
Sultan  Mahmoud's  days,  and  long  before  them,  it  was 
no  uncommon  practice  for  men  to  get  rid  of  their  ene- 
mies by  hiring  false  witnesses  to  swear  that  they  were 
mad.  A  medical  examination  is  now,  according  to  the 
letter  of  the  law,  declared  to  be  indispensable.  But 
what  is  the  value  of  the  letter  of  the  law  in  this  country  ? 
What  so  easy  as  to  bribe  two  or  three  hungry  Turkish 
hekims?  I  believe  the  examination  is  generally  in- 
trusted to  one  hekim.  I  can  believe  that  the  sane  are 
still  condemned  to  the  hard  fate  of  the  insane.  Where 
hardly  a  man  has  virtue  enough  to  resist  a  bribe — 
where  money  is  all  prevalent — I  can  believe  almost 
anything.  It  was  a  person  far  above  the  average  topical 
respectability  and  morality  who  told  me  that  he  knew, 
of  his  own  knowledge,  that  an  effendi,  as  sane  as  any 
of  his  neighbours,  had  recently  been  sworn  into  tiie 
Suleimanieh  by  a  dissolute  younger  brother,  who  was 
now  spending  and  wasting  his  property.  Where  a 
place  is  so  hermetically  sealed,  suspicion  will  penetrate 


Chap.  XXH.  HOSPITALS  FOR  LUNATICS.  307 

the  gates.  If  there  were  not  state  secrets,  it  may 
be  suspected  that  the  Suleimanieh  would  not  be  so 
impenetrable. 

If  all  the  military  hospitals  were  not  in  good  order,  it 
was  not  owing  to  any  stint  of  mcmey.  They  were  an- 
nually costing  the  Sultan  an  enormous  sum.  When 
their  improvement  was  first  contemplated,  applications 
were  made  to  the  British  Government  for  the  advice 
and  assistance  of  competent  English  medical  officers. 
Dr.  Dawson  and  Dr.  Davy  (brother  to  Sir  Humphrey) 
were  sent  out  to  Constantinople  in  1841,  with  the  ex- 
pectation of  being  permanently  employed.  These  two 
officers  had  not  been  a  month  in  the  country  ere  they 
found  themselves  assailed  by  inexplicable  intrigues — 
inexplicable  to  them,  but  perfectly  well  understood  by 
the  Turks  of  the  country  and  by  the  Christians  of  Pera. 
Under  every  discouragement  they  drew  up  their  reports 
and  suggested  their  plans.  Though  never  carried  out 
to  the  full  extent,  these  plans  formed  the  principal  basis 
of  the  improvements  we  witnessed.  Dr.  Davy  would 
have  also  ameliorated  their  lazarettos  and  wretched 
quarantine  system ;  but  here  also  he  was  encountered 
by  intrigue,  ignorance,  and  obstinacy,  and  the  Turkish 
quarantine  remains  a  thing  to  be  laughed  at,  or  wept 
over,  according  to  circumstances.  It  has  had  no  more 
effect  in  checking  the  introduction  of  plague  in  Turkey 
than  might  be  produced  by  drawing  a  chalk  line  across 
Trafalgar-square.  That  there  has  been  no  plague  for 
some  time  is  owing  to  totally  different  causes.  Before 
any  quarantine  was  thought  of,  the  country  was  occa- 
sionally exempt  from  the  visitations  of  the  plague  dur- 
ing a  series  of  years — ten  years  or  more.     In  the  year 

x2 


308  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXIL 

1836  plague  was  rife  in  their  Asiatic  provinces.*  In 
the  same  year  it  raged  in  Constantinople  with  almost 
unprecedented  fury.-f  Let  the  destroyer  again  raise 
his  head,  and  start  from  Egypt  or  Syria,  or  any  neigh- 
bouring country,  and  he  will  find  that  the  barriers  raised 
against  him  have  less  strength  and  consistency  than  cob- 
webs.  A  few  strides  will  bring  him  from  Cairo  or 
Alexandria  to  Smyrna,  and  from  Smyrna  to  Constan- 
tinople. 

After  thwarting  our  two  medical  officers,  the  Turks 
drove  them  from  the  country  with  an  insolent  and  arro- 
gant ingratitude.  In  this  particular  their  conduct  has 
been  consistent  and  uniform.  Every  British  officer 
sent  out  by  his  Government  at  the  request  of  the  Porte 
— every  enlightened,  honest  European,  who  has  been 
engaged  in  their  service,  has  been  treated  in  the  same 
manner  as  Dr.  Davy,  and  has  quitted  the  country  Mrith 
equal  disgust,  and  with  the  innermost  conviction  that, 
through  the  incurable  vices  of  the  administration,  the 
reformed  Ottoman  empire  is  every  year  approaching 
nearer  to  its  ruin  and  final  extinction. 

The  Greeks  have  an  exceedingly  good,  and  the 
Armenians  a  very  bad,  hospital  just  outside  the  land- 
ward walls  of  Constantinople.  I  visited  both  repeat- 
edly ;  and  as  the  cholera  was  in  them,  and  as  I  sat  by 
the  bedsides  and  came  in  contact  with  the  disease,  I  am 
the  more  convinced  that  it  is  not  at  all  contagious. 
It  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  this  question  should 

♦  "  Researches  in  Asia  Minor."  By  William  J.  Hamilton,  Secretary  to 
the  Geological  Society. 

t  Bishop  Southgate  :  "  Narrative  of  a  Tour  through  Armenian  Kurdis- 
tan, etc."    New  York,  1841. 


ma^^'^^K^^^^^^'^^^ 


Chap.  XXH.    GREEK.  AND  ARMENIAN  HOSPITALS.  309 

be  ascertained  and  clearly  settled.  In  England  I  have 
known  people  to  be  almost  entirely  abandoned,  when 
prompt  aid  might  have  saved  them,  through  the  belief 
that  the  disorder  was  highly  cont^ious. 

The  Greek  hospital  stands  in  a  spacious  airy  inclosure, 
within  good  stone  walls,  and  every  part  of  it  is  solidly  built 
of  stone.  Except  at  4he  grand  Turkish  hospital  at  Scu- 
tari, I  never  saw  such  exemplary  cleanliness  and  neatness. 
The  wards  were  well  ventilated,  well  warmed  in  winter, 
and  well  supplied  with  pure  water.  All  the  physicians 
and  surgeons  were  Greeks  who  had  studied  in  France 
or  Italy.  The  chief  doctor,  an  accomplished  young 
man,  who  spoke  Italian  like  a  Tuscan,  had  studied  at 
Pisa  and  at  Florence.*  Between  the  male  and  female 
wards  three  hundred  patients  could  be  accommodated. 
Attached  to  the  hospital  were  comfortable  almshouses, 
in  which  sixty  poor  decayed  people  were  lodged,  fed, 
and  clothed.  This  hospital,  which  in  every  way  confers 
great  honour  on  the  Greeks,  was  built  about  eleven 
years  ago.  It  was  erected  and  is  supported  by  church 
donations,  voluntary  contributions,  legacies,  &c.  The 
management  rests  with  a  committee  of  twelve  Greek 
notables,  who,  singly  or  in  company,  frequently  visit  the 
establishment  The  Greek  Patriarch  also  looks  in  from 
time  to  time. 

The  Armenian  hospital,  a  little  beyond  the  gate  ot 
tiie  Seven  Towers,  is  a  large,  rotten,  wooden  building,  or 

•  With  regard  to  cholera,  this  very  able  Greek  was  a  decided  anti- 
contagionist.  He  assured  me  that  they  had  always  mixed  the  cholera 
patients  with  other  patients,  and  that  in  no  single  case  had  the  cholera  been 
commtmicated.  They  had  recently  had  between  seventy  and  eighty  cases  of 
cholera ;  many  were  cured,  some  died,  but  no  patient  that  was  not  brought 
into  hospital  with  the  cholera  upon  him  ever  caught  that  disease  therer 


310  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.         Chap.   XXIL 

collection  of  buildings,  very  dingy  without  and  exceed- 
ingly j51thy  within.  But  for  its  size  and  abundant  room 
it  would  be  as  bad  as  the  English  hospital  at  Fera. 
The  medical  staff  was  wholly  inefficient — was  most 
wretched;  the  accommodations  for  the  sick  were  de- 
plorable, and  an  insupportable  stench  pervaded  the 
whole  place.  Neither  the  Patriarch  nor  any  of  their 
notables  seemed  ever  to  come  near  the  establishment 
As  a  community  the  Armenians  are  far  wealthier  than 
the  Greeks,  and  of  late  the  Sultan  had  supplied  the 
whole  of  this  hospital  with  bread.  In  one  angle  there 
is  a  curious  adjunct — a  candle  and  taper  manufactory. 
These  candles  and  tapers  are  made  of  a  mixture  of 
wax  and  tallow ;  they  are  sold  in  the  Armenian 
churches,  where  the  consumption  is  great,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds are  'paid  over  to  the  hospital,  save  and  except 
such  portions  as  stick  to  the  palms  of  the  priests.  In  a 
good  measure  the  wretched  hospital  is  dependent  on  its 
foul-smelling  candle-&ctory. 


CHAP.XXm.  BABRACKS.  311 


CHAPTER  XXm. 

Military  Barracks  —  Grand  Artillery  Barracks  at  Pera  —  Troops  badly 
shod  —  Horse  Artillery  Exercise  —  Grand  Barracks  at  Scutari  — 
Osman  Fasba  —  Regular  Cavalry  —  Infantry  —  Slovenly  Dress  — 
The  Seraskier's  Barracks  —  Infantry  Exercise  —  Ignorance  of  Pashas  — 
European  Instructors  —  A  Review  —  Turkish  Lancers  —  Miserable 
Horses  —  Number  of  Nubian  Blacks  in  the  Army  —  Numerical  strength 
of  the  Army  —  The  Conscription  —  Mr.  William  J.  Hamilton  —  Bishop 

I  Southgate  —  Fatal  Effects  of  the  Conscription  —  Warlike  Demonstra- 
taons  in  1849  —  Defenceless  State  of  the  Frontiers  —  Political  Blunders 

—  Project  of  a  War  against  Austria  —  The  Arsenal  —  Malaria  — 
Admiral  Sir  Baldwin  Walker  —  Ship-building — Albanian  Galley-slaves 

—  Turkish  Bands  —  The  State  of  the  Navy  —  The  Capitan  Pasha's 
Ship,  etc,  —  War  Steamers  —  Officers  educated  in  England  —  Ingra- 
titude —  Colonel  Williams  and  Lieutenant  Dickson  —  American  Ship- 
builders, Meflsrs.  Eckford,  Rhodes,  and  Reeves  —  Mr.  Carr,  the  Ame- 
rican Minister  —  Bad  faith  of  the  Turkish  Government  —  Mr.  Frederick 
Taylor  —  Sir  Jasper  Atkinson  and  the  Turkish  Mint  —  The  Ordnance 

—  Casting  Iron  Guns  —  State  of  Turkish  Prisons  -^  Hired  False-wit- 
nesses —  Rayahs  and  protected  Subjects  —  Why  not  be  a  Dane  P 

Whichever  way  one  turns  the  eye  at  Constantinople  it 
is  almost  sure  to  rest  upon  a  great  barrack.  These 
buildings  are  numerous,  and,  if  not  in  their  architecture, 
they  are  imposing  in  their  size  and  spaciousness.  Sultan 
Selim,  when  attempting  for  the  first  time  to  form  a 
Turkish  army  disciplined  in  the  European  manner, 
erected  several  extensive  buildings  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  Nizam  Djeditt  or  new  troops ;  but  when 
the  Janizaries  got  the  better  of  him  they  knocked  down 
most  of  these  buildings.  The  late  Sultan  Mahmoud 
was  the  great  barrack-builder.     In  1828|  two  years 


312  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chai».  XXHI. 

after  his  destruction  of  the  Janizaries,  I  saw  them  very 
busily  employed  in  erecting  several  of  the  vast  edifices 
which  are  now  finished.  Abdul  Medjid  has,  I  believe, 
added  only  one  or  two  to  the  number.  Taking  into 
account  the  vast  barracks  of  Mahmoud  at  Daoud-Pasha 
outside  the  city,  the  immense  barracks  in  the  Asiatic 
suburb  of  Scutari,  and  the  barracks  and  commodious 
guardhouses  on  either  side  the  Bosphorus,  I  should 
think  that  100,000  men  might  be  lodged  here  without 
much  crowding.  A  Turkish  officer  told  me  that  they 
could  accommodate  200,000.  In  the  spring  of  1848 
several  of  these  great  barracks  were  entirely  empty,  and 
there  were  others  that  had  but  few  inmates.  More  than 
one,  whidi  had  cost  Mahmoud  immense  sums  in  1 828, 
were  already  neglected,  and  showing  symptoms  of  de- 
cadence. 

The  first  which  we  attentively  examined  were  the 
artillery  barracks  just  outside  the  Pera  suburb.  These 
were  erected  by  Sultan  Selim,  and,  if  I  do  not  err,  upon 
plans  and  designs  furnished  by  Count  Sebastiani  and 
General  Andreossy.  They  are  well  situated ;  they  are 
Imposing  in  their  extent,  and  seem  to  be  in  all  respects 
well  suited  to  their  purpose.  The  Sultan's  brother-in- 
law,  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha,  Grand  Master  of  the  Artil- 
lery, &c.  (who  wished  to  confine  my  examination  to  this 
one  establishment),  sent  up  orders  from  Tophana  that 
we  should  be  admitted  and  conducted  all  over  the  bar- 
racks. The  Mudir  put  us  off  for  two  days,  so  that  there 
was  time  for  putting  the  house  in  order.  The  day  on 
which  we  were  admitted  it  was  certainly  in  excellent 
order;  but  whenever  time  was  taken  for 'preparation  I 
bad  my  doubts  as  to  the  habitual,  common  status.    The 


CiiAP.  XXm.    ARTILLERY  BARRACKS  AT  PERA.  313 

entire  barracks  could  comfortably  hold  from  3000  to 
4000  men.  They  were  exceedingly  well  ventilated. 
The  distribution  of  the  apartments  or  wards  seemed  to 
me  to  be  excellent.  In  each  long  room  there  were  two 
double  rows  of  mats,  each  row  accommodating  about 
55  men.  The  mattresses  and  bed-covers  were  stowed 
away  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  in  an  open  wooden 
screen  which  occupied  very  little  space ;  they  were 
sweet  and  clean,  and  very  neatly  arranged.  At  night 
the  mattresses  are  spread  over  the  matting  on  the  floor. 
Bedsteads  are  dispensed  with,  except  in  hospitals.  But 
hardly  any  Turks  think  as  yet  of  using  bedsteads,  or  of 
setting  apart  rooms  merely  as  bedrooms.  In  the  best 
houses  they  sleep  on  the  broad  divans  or  spreaJi  their 
mattresses  on  the  floor.  In  the  morning  the  servants 
come  in,  and  walk  away  with  the  beds ;  and  then  the 
room  where  you  have  slept  becomes  a  dra¥nng-room  or 
a  dining-room,  or  both  in  one.  During  the  day,  bed  and 
bedding  are  deposited  in  presses  or  cupboards.  The 
artillerymen's  mattresses  were  at  least  as  good  as  those 
we  generally  slept  upon*  As  usual,  the  most  slovenly 
feature  was  in  the  shoeing.  In  the  corridor,  at  the  door 
of  every  barrack-room,  there  was  a  multitudinous  array 
of  muddy,  filthy  boots  and  shoes,  through  which  it  was 
not  always  easy  to  steer  one's  way  without  tripping. 
The  soldiers  must  not  enter  the  rooms  with  their  shoes 
or  boots  on.  These  are  thrown  off  at  the  door :  if  the 
men  have  slippers,  they  put  them  on  ;  if  they  have  not, 
they  must  walk  on  the  soles  of  their  socks.  But  the 
same  rule  obtains  everywhere:  there  is  no  walking  a 
hundred  yards  without  being  covered  Mrith  mud  in 
winter  and  dust  in  summer ;  and  then  the  Mussulmans, 


314  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,         Ohaf.  XXriT. 

with  almost  the  strictness  of  a  religious  observance,  con- 
sider their  carpets  and  mattings  as  things  to  be  trodden 
only  by  clean  slippers  or  bare  feet  At  the  foot  of  the 
main  staircase  of  every  much-frequented  Turkish  house 
we  invariably  found  a  confused  heap  of  mud-boots,  dirty 
boots  and  shoes.  It  was  so  at  Ali  Pasha's.  When  the 
staircase  happened  to  be  a  dark  one  I  never  could  help 
blundering  among  some  such  heap.  The  effect  was  very 
disagreeable  to  other  nerves  beside  the  olfactory.  A 
very  little  care  and  arrangement  would  obviate  it;  but 
it  is  adety  old  custom. 

The  officer  in  command  at  the  artillery  barracks 
— one  of  the  many  Achmet  Pashas — was  civil  and 
rather '  communicative.  He  agreed  that  the  whole 
appearance  of  the  soldiers  would  be  much  improved 
if  they  were  better  shod,  and  would  make  use  of 
brushes  and  a  little  blacking.  Their  present  process 
of  cleaning  boots  and  shoes  (when  they  dean  them  at 
all)  is  to  rub  them  over  with  birch  brooms,  and  then 
wash  them  in  cold  water.  Shoe-leather  neither  washes 
nor  dries  well ;  and  hence  many  bad  colds  and  coughs. 
There  was  not  a  jacket  nor  a  pair  of  trowsers  in  bar- 
racks but  sadly  needed  beating  and  brushing.  The  best 
of  the  artillerymen  looked  dirty  and  negligent  in  their 
persons.  A  neat  old  English  or  Austrian  soldier  is 
far  cleaner  and  more  tidy  in  coming  off  a  long  and 
rough  campaign  than  these  Turks,  who  are  hardly  ever 
moved  from  their  barracks.  Achmet  Pasha  treatjed  us 
to  pipes  and  coffee,  and  to  the  sight  of  some  horse  artil- 
lery exercise  and  manoeuvres.  The  guns  were  all  brass ; 
the  carriages  were  all  painted  with  a  very  light  green 
paint,  which  had  a  bad  and  very  mean  effect.     Neither 


Chap.  XXHI.     GBAIJD  BABRACKS  AT  SCUTARI.  315 

guns  uor  carriages  were  kept  clean.  The  harness  was 
abominably  dirty.  The  horses  were  all  white  or  very 
light  greys;  they  told  us  that  they  were  bred  in 
Boumelia,  in  the  country  up  above  Fhillipopoli ;  I  was 
much  deceived  if  they  were  not  all  Transylvanian  or 
Hungarian  horses — they  bore  a  very  close  family  resem- 
blance to  a  breed  I  had  often  admired  in  the  Emperor 
of  Austria's  army.  They  were  what  we  should  consider 
under-sized  for  that  service ;  but  they  were  compact  and 
strong,  and  not  at  all  deficient  in  spirit ;  they  were  well 
broke  into  their  work — were  admirably  in  hand — and 
the  artillery  drivers  drove  them  in  good  style.  About 
a  dozen  light  field-pieces  were  very  well  handled  in  an 
inclosed  field  in  front  of  the  barracks.  It  was  by  far 
Uie  best  specimen  of  military  exercise  we  saw  in  Turkey ; 
but  the  Pasha  showed  us  only  his  very  best  men.  The 
instructing  officer  was  a  German,  who  had,  I  believe, 
been  a  sergeant  of  artillery  in  the  Prussian  service.  A 
few  young  Turkish  subalterns  seemed  both  active  and 
intelligent ;  but  the  superior  officers  were  sitting  down 
on  stools,  looking  on,  and  smoking  their  tchibouques. 

The  Mahmoud  barracks  over  at  Scutari,  though 
wanting  elevation,  are  truly  magnificent  in  length  and 
breadth,  and  in  situation.  Take  them  altogether,  they 
are  the  finest  barracks  I  ever  saw  in  any  country.  Un- 
fortunately, while  we  were  travelling  in  Asia  Minor,  a 
fire  broke  out  and  completely  gutted  half  of  the  build- 
ing. The  conflagration  was  by  night :  it  afibrded  what 
the  Perotes  called  un  trh  beau  spectacle.  We  had  been 
told  at  Brusa  that  500  soldiers  had  been  roasted  alive, 
at  Pera  this  number  fell  down  to  50,  and  on  the  spot 
we  were  assured  that  only  eight  or  ten  men  had  been 


316  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIH. 

burned.  Externally,  the  eiTects  of  the  fire  were  scarcely 
visible,  the  stone  walls  remaining  firm  and  erect ;  but  in 
the  interior  there  was  ti*uly  a  scene  of  desolation.  In 
the  portion  unscathed  by  fire,  we  admired  the  broad, 
airy,  interminable  corridors^  which  were  all  as  clean  and 
as  quiet  as  the  cloisters  of  a  Benedictine  monastery. 
We  introduced  ourselves  to  the  commandant,  Osman 
Pasha,  who  was  exceedingly  polite  and  kind.  He  had 
studied  at  Vienna,  and  was  said  to  be  a  good  artillery 
o£Bcer.  He  was  seated  on  a  divan,  in  a  spacious,  elegant, 
and  unusually  well  furnished  saloon.  If  I  were  re- 
former in  Turkey,  I  would  burn  all  these  fattening, 
indolence-promoting  divans,  and  declare  inexorable  war 
against  the  adet  which  makes  it  etiquette  for  a  man  to 
be  lazy  and  grow  fat  so  soon  as  he  attains  to  high  rank. 
Osman  seemed  to  be  pleased  with  our  visit :  he  gave  us 
pipes  twice.  He  spoke  very  modestly  of  the  Sultan's 
army,  acknowledging  that  it  was  still  but  in  its  infancy, 
and  that  officers  and  men  have  yet  a  great  deal  to  learn. 
He  dwelt  with  warm  admiration  upon  the  admirable 
qualities  of  the  Austrian  army,  and  the  excellent  mili- 
tary  administration  of  that  empire.*  He  was  a  modest 
man,  and  so  much  the  more  likely  to  be  a  brave  one. 
He  told  me  that  the  artillery  was  not  better  paid  than 
the  infantry,  but  that  the  cavalry  was  of  late  receiving 
some  slight  additional  pay.  Before  the  conflagration 
the  barracks  could  lodge  from  6000  to  7000  men. 
There  were  now  in  it  two  regiments  of  infantry,  one 
regiment  of  artillery,  and  a  few  squadrons  of  cavalry. 

♦  For  this  excellent  administration  Austria  was  greatly  indebted  to  tbe 
lamented  veteran  Latour,  who  was  so  barbarously  murdered  by  the  revo- 
lutionary  rabble  in  the  month  of  October,  1848. 


Chap.  XXHI.  OSMAX  PASHA.  317 

None  of  these  men  had  been  moved  for  very  many 
months — during  the  winter  they  had   hardly  quitted 
their  barracks.     The  cavahry  were  all  -lancers^  and  so 
indeed  were  all  the  horse-soldiers  we  saw  of  this  new 
regular  army.     We  heard  of  dragoons  and  of  corps  of 
heavy  cavalry ;  but  we  never  saw  a  single  specimen  of 
either.     They  had  no  horses  in  the  country  fit  to  mount 
a  heavy  regiment.    The  Pasha  sent  one  of  his  officers  to 
conduct  us  over  the  barracks.     Here,  where  there  had 
certainly  been  no  preparation  or  previous  notice,  there 
were  some  few  signs  of  slovenliness  and  negligence;  but 
on  the  whole  one  might  fairly  say  the  barracks  were  in 
excellent  order.     The   stables — ^like   all  the   Turkish 
stables  I  ever  saw — ^were  decidedly  bad.     They  would 
have  thrown  an  English  or  an  Austrian  dragoon  into  a 
passion.     Soldiers  who  will  not  beat  and  brush  their  own 
jackets  are  not  likely  to  bestow  much  pains  on  the  coats 
of  their  horses ;  we  never  saw  a  trooper's  horse  look  as 
if  it  were  groomed — I  believe  these  lancers  of  the  im- 
perial guard  were  entirely  innocent  of  the  use  of  ciury- 
combs  and  brushes.     What  with  the  natural  slovenliness 
of  the  men  and  the  rough  and  dirty  appearance  of  the 
horses,  a  regiment  of  lancers  when  united  presented  but 
a  shabby  picture— a  picture  to  excite  derision  on  any 
parade  or  drill-ground  in  Christendom.     Some  of  my 
Frank  friends  argued  that  this  outward  and  visible  show 
would  not  affect  their  fighting  qualities.    J^en  doute.    A 
good  soldier  is  always  a  clean  soldier ;  it  is  by  cleanliness 
and  the  care  of  his  gif^om,  as  well  as  by  good  food,  that 
the  trooper's  horse  really  becomes   a  war-horse:   the 
fellow  who  is  so  lazy  that  he  will  not  clean  his  own  boots 
is  the  very  man  to  be  negligent  of  more  important  duties. 


318  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXDl. 

In  an  excellent,  open,  extensive  drill-ground,  offering 
the  most  glorious  views  of  Constantinople,  the  Pro- 
pontis,  the  islands,  the  Asiatic  coast,  and  the  snow- 
covered  summits  of  Olympus,  we  saw  some  infantry- 
being  drilled  by  Turkish  officers,  who,  for  the  most 
part,  seemed  very  much  to  stand  in  need  of  drill  them- 
selves. It  was  slow  and  slovenly  work,  but  conducted 
with  great  calmness  and  good-humour.  The  Sultan 
insists  that  there  shall  be  no  beating,  no  cruelty,  or 
harshness.  There  certainly  was  none  herSy  nor  did  I 
ever  see  any  at  Constantinople,  except  once,  when  a 
hideous-looking  Nubian  officer  was  drilling  some  white 
Turkish  recruits  in  the  broad  Galata  moat,  and  soundly 
thrashing  the  dull  ones  with  a  country  riding-whip 
made  of  buffalo's  hide. 

Part  of  a  regiment  which  had  fulfilled  its  term  of 
service,  but  which  was  kept  together,  and  very  incor- 
rectly called  a  militia  regiment^  marched  across  the 
drill-ground,  and  went  to  perform  some  light  in&ntry 
movements  on  the  gently  sloping  hills  between  the  bar- 
racks and  the  grand  cemetery  of  Scutari.  These  men 
were  neater  and  cleaner  than  the  infantry  in  the  bar- 
racks, from  whom  they  were  distinguished  by  wearing 
black  cross-belts  instead  of  white.  They  trod  over  the 
ground  with  a  good  light  step,  and  their  evolutions  en 
tirailleurs  were  quick  and  good.  But  here  again  was 
the  alloy,  the  canker  of  Turkish  indolence :  half  of  the 
officers,  instead  of  marching  at  double  quick  time  over 
the  hills  with  their  men,  remained  behind  on  the  drill- 
ground  to  gossip  and  smoke  pipes  with  the  officers 
there. 

It  was  with  regret  that  I  finished  my  short  acquaint- 


Chap,  XXm.  THE  SMALLER  BARRACKS.  319 

ance  with  Osman.  I  was  afterwards  told  that  he  was 
a  gentleman  by  birth,  the  descendant  of  an  old  and  re- 
spectable, though  impoverished  family.  I  should  have 
guessed  as  much  from  his  manners  and  behaviour. 
Beschid  Fasha  can  no  more  make  gentlemen  in  a  day 
than  he  can  make  soldiers  or  administrators  in  a  day. 
Under  the  unreformed  system  sudden  promotions  were 
common  enough ;  the  man  who  was  a  poor  boatman  or 
a  maker  or  mender  of  papoushes  in  one  year,  might 
be  Lord  High  Admiral  or  Master-General  of  the 
Ordnance  a  year  or  two  afterwards ;  but  then  his  per- 
sonal coarseness  and  vulgarity  were  very  materially 
concealed  by  the  splendid  flowing  robes  and  the  im- 
posing turbans  of  the  old  costume ;  and  then  there  were 
gentlemen  of  birth,  grave  and  dignified  eflendis,  upon 
whose  manner  and  demeanour  he  could  form  his  own. 
But  Beform  has  swept  away  the  flowing  robes,  the  tur- 
bans, and  the  men  of  family ;  no  good  models  remain 
about  the  government,  and  the  pasha  who  would 
have  looked  imposing  enough  in  the  Oriental  attire, 
shows  off  but  poorly  in  tight  pantaloons,  close  but- 
toned frock-coat,  and  plain  scarlet  skull-cap.  The 
varnish,  the  framing  and  gilding  of  the  picture  are  all 
gone! 

Several  of  the  smaller  barracks  we  visited  were  de- 
serving of  all  praise  for  order  and  cleanliness :  this  was 
particularly  the  case  with  those  on  the  Bosphorus,  at 
Amaoutkeui,  Bebek,  and  Boumeli  Hissar. 

To  the  spacious  barracks  in  Constantinople  Proper, 
which  stand  round  the  Seraskier's  Tower,  I  was  re- 
fused admittance.  I  believe  that  this  refusal  was  owing 
to  my  having  expressed  a  too  eager  wish  to  see  the 


320  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT>         Chap.  XXlfl. 

Seraskier's  prison,  which  stands  within  the  same  great 
inclosure  of  lofty  walls.  Externally  the  barracks  looked 
neat  and  clean ;  they  are  very  extensive  and  admirably 
situated  on  the  summit  of  one  of  the  seven  hills  of 
Constantinople.  Nearly  every  recent  writer  of  travels 
in  Turkey  has  dwelt  upon  the  magnificence  of  the  views 
from  the  top  of  the  lofVy  tower  of  the  Seraskeriat 
That  elevated  gallery  ought  indeed  to  be  visited  by 
every  traveller,  as  well  as  the  tower  of  Galata  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  Golden  Horn.  There  is  no  under- 
standing the  city  of  Constantinople  without  ascending 
the  Seraskier's  Tower.  In  looking  from  it  we  were 
very  forcibly  struck  by  the  number  and  extent  of  unoc- 
cupied, void  spaces  within  the  walls,  and  by  the  miserable, 
desolate  appearance  of  a  great  part  of  the  city.  We 
rather  frequently  passed  the  great  inclosed  square  of 
the  Seraskeriat;  but  although  here  were  the  head- 
quarters of  the  army,  we  seldom  saw  the  soldiers  doing 
anything.  But  one  afternoon,  in  the  month  of  March, 
when  the  French  Bevolution  had  startled  the  Porte  out 
of  an  easy  slumber,  we  witnessed  a  great  show  of  acti- 
vity  in  this  square.  About  1500  men  were  exercising 
under  the  eye  of  a  fat  pasha  (name  unknown  to  us), 
and  the  great  Seraskier  himself  was  looking  on  from  a 
distant  window,  with  a  tchibouque  in  one  hand  and  an 
eye-glass  in  the  other.  The  majority  of  these  men 
were  not  young  recruits,  but  soldiers  of  some  standing ; 
yet  their  performance  was  rather  loose  and  slovenly. 
When  they  formed  in  line,  their  line  was  far  from  beiiig 
a  right  one ;  their  formations  into  squares,  hollow  and 
solid,  were  but  poor  exhibitions.  The  men  all  looked 
slip-shod,  and  dreadfully  dirty  about  the  feet     Wiih 


Chap.  XXIU.  THE  SERASKIER'S  TOWER.  321 

such  shoes  as  they  wear  it  is  scarcely  possible  for 
them  to  march  well:  they  might  as  well  try  it  in 
their  old  unheeled  papoushes.  Many  of  the  men 
would  have  been,  in  better  hands^  excellent  materials 
for  soldiers,  being  broad-chested  and  altogether  well- 
made  fellows. 

From  this  time  exercise  and  military  evolutions  be- 
came rather  frequent  at  the  foot  of  the  Tower  of 
the  Seraskier.  At  first  the  Turks  chuckled  over  the 
troubles  and  disturbances  of  Christendom,  but  it  was  not 
long  before  they  became  apprehensive  that  these  con- 
vulsions might  bring  about  consequences  and  political 
changes  that  would  be  very  fatal  to  their  empire.  If 
they  rejoiced  when  the  revolutionary  principle  reached 
Vienna,  and  when  Kossuth  and  anarchy  raised  their 
heads  in  Hungary,  it  was  but  for  a  moment,  and  only 
out  of  the  souvenir  that  the  Austrians  had  been  old 
enemies  of  the  Osmanleea ;  and  very  soon  they  seemed 
to  feel  instinctively  that  any  power  lost  by  the  Kaiser 
would  be  but  so  much  more  power  gained  by  the  Tzar, 
and  that,  should  any  very  serious  injury  be  inflicted  on 
the  Austrian  Empire,  the  Ottoman  Empire  would  lose 
one  of  the  best  props  upon  which  it  leaned.  Some  of 
them  talked  big ;  but  misgiving  and  fear  were  in  their 
hearts.  In  their  ignorance  or  very  insufficient  in- 
formation, they  went  on  rather  rapidly  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  was  all  up  with  Austria ;  that  Russia  would 
soon  have  the  entire  command  of  the  Danube,  and 
would  thence  recommence  war  upon  Turkey.  The 
panic  was  of  course  increased  when  insurrection  broke 
.  out  in  their  Danubian  principalities  of  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia,  and  when  Russia,  claiming  her  indisputable 

VOL.  II.  Y 


322  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         CJhap.  XXHI. 

right  to  interfere — a  right  recognised  in  successive 
treaties — began  to  inarch  troops  towards  Jassy  and 
Bucharest. 

In  the  months  of  May  and  June  they  had  exercises  h 
feu  two  or  three  times  a  week  at  the  Seraskeriat  If 
not  decidedly  bad,  the  firing  was  certainly  not  good. 
The  Dadians'  powder  was  detestable ;  the  muskets  were 
very  bad,  with  the  old  flint  locks.  Hardly  any  of  the 
regiments  had  percussion  locks.  The  bursting  of 
musket-barrels,  with  the  catastrophes  attendant  thereon, 
were  alarmingly  frequent  Before  long  it  may  be  very 
important  that  England  should  have  a  correct  notion  of 
the  value  of  this  army.  I  would  not  underrate  it^  but 
I  feel  confident  that,  alone,  it  could  never  stand  in  the 
field  against  the  veteran  troops  of  Russia ;  and  that  unless 
Christian  officers  were  put  in  the  command  (as  we 
placed  British  officers  over  the  Portuguese),  they  would 
be  very  inefficient  and  troublesome  auxiliaries.  A 
French  officer  who  had  studied  them  well,  who  had 
lived  long  in  the  East,  and  who  was  also  perfectly  well 
acquainted  with  the  Eussian  army,  said  that  it  was  the 
most  idle  of  dreams  to  fancy  that  this  imperfectly  dis- 
ciplined army  of  Abdul  Medjid  could  meet  the  troops 
of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  in  the  field.  He  considered 
that  the  degree  of  discipline  to  which  they  had  attained 
did  not  compensate  for  the  loss  of  the  fanaticism  and 
enthusiasm  which  animated  their  undisciplined  prede*- 
cessors ;  that  they  might  make  a  stand  and  fight  pretty 
well  behind  stone  walls ;  but  that  en  rase  campagne  they 
would  fall  like  corn  before  the  reaper's  sickle,  or  go  off 
like  chaff  before  the  wind.  "  lis  rCont  point  cTqffici' 
editor  they  have  hardly  any  competent  officers.     As 


Chap.  XXTTT.  STATE  OP  THE  ARMY.  323 

you  ascend  the  scale  of  rank,  instead  of  finding  more 
science  and  experience,  you  usually  find  more  ignorance 
and  inexperience.  Generally  the  great  pasha,  placed 
by  Court  intrigue  at  the  head  of  an  army,  has  never 
been  a  soldier,  and  is  in  military  afl^irs  about  the  most 
ignorant  man  in  that  army.  He  takes  some  officer  into 
his  favour,  and  relies  for  some  time  on  his  judgment  and 
advice ;  then  he  changes  and  takes  another  adviser,  or 
if  his  difficulties  become  at  all  complicated  he  will  seek 
advice  of  a  dozen  men,  who  may  very  probably  enters 
tain  twelve  different  opinions  and  plans.  Fancy  then 
the  jumble  of  every  operation  !  In  their  intolerance  or 
their  pride,  unless  a  Frank  officer  turn  renegade  they 
will  not  allow  him  to  exercise  any  command— they  will 
not  even  permit  him  to  wear  a  sword — he  can  be  only  a 
despised  instructor — little  more  than  a  good  drill-ser- 
geant— he  may  or  may  not  be  well  paid,  but  he  cannot 
take  real  rank  as  an  officer,  or  in  fact  be  a  part  of  the 
army.  Here  and  there  you  may  find  a  Polish, 
German,  or  Italian  renegade,  usually  a  deserter  and  a 
scoundrel.  Hardly  one  of  these  fellows  has  ever  been 
more  than  a  non-commissioned  officer  in  his  own 
country.  Here  they  suddenly  become  captains,  majors, 
colonels.  These  are  the  men  the  great  pashas  prefer. 
Low  bom  and  low  bred,  they  can  submit  to  Turkish 
arrogance  and  to  treatment  which  no  gentleman  can 
possibly  tolerate.  One  may  conceive  how  competent 
are  these  renegades  to  the  conduct  of  an  army  in  the 
field  I  Then,  who  would  answer  a  single  hour  for  the 
honour  or  common  honesty  of  such  a  canaille  ?  They 
have  deserted  their  colours ;  they  have  deserted  their 
religion  I    Let  Russia,  or  any  other  assailant  of  Turkey, 

y2 


I 


•  •Ik.  JI 


324  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXin. 

tempt  them  with  a  good  bribe,  and  they  will  desert  the 
Sultan  and  sacrifice  his  troops. 

Although  a  great  bustling  and  cracking  was  kept  up 
at  the  Seraskier's,  and  although  now  and  then  a  bat- 
talion of  the  guards  was  marched  over  the  long  bridge, 
and  up  to  Pera  and  back  again,  there  were  no  reviews, 
no  manoeuvres  outside  the  town.  We  were  frequently 
told  that  there  was  to  be  a  grand  review ;  but  it  never 
came  off  One  morning,  however,  we  were  roused 
from  our  slumbers  up  at  Pera  by  a  loud  drumming  and 
trumpeting,  and  were  told  that  troops  were  going  out 
to  manoeuvre,  and  that  there  would  be  a  grand  display 
on  the  heights  of  Daoud  Pasha.  We  hastily  dressed, 
swallowed  a  cup  .of  coffee,  and  took  the  road  the  troops 
had  taken.  They  had  only  been  toddled  out  to  a 
ridge  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Pera ;  they  had 
deployed  there,  near  to  a  house  in  which  some  Germans 
brewed  and  sold  very  small  beer ;  and  as  we  reached 
the  great  cemetery  we  found  that  they  were  toddling 
back  again.  It  could  not  be  called  marching,  though 
here  was  one  of  the  very  few  places  that  offered  a 
tolerably  smooth  and  good  road.  First  came  two  very 
dirty  trumpeters,  then  followed  a  corpulent  pasha 
mounted  on  a  heavy  under-bred  horse,  and  attended  by 
a  numerous  and  ridiculously  disproportionate  staff,  all 
riding  very  sorry  ungroomed  beasts.  This  group  was 
followed  by  a  regiment  of  lancers  of  the  imperial 
guard,  riding  in  a  most  loose  and  slovenly  manner,  and 
being  altogether  in  a  mean  dirty  plight  The  blades  of 
their  lances,  their  stirrups,  their  bits,  were  all  rusty ; 
the  pennons  under  the  heads  of  the  lances  were  little 
better  than  dirty  red  rags :  instead  of  wearing  cross- 


j 


Chap.  XXIU.  THE  IMPERIAL  GUARD.  325 

belts  the  men  wore  single  belts  of  white  glazed  leather, 
with  sabres  hanging  from  them,  in  all  manner  of  direc 
tions :  the  horses  were  poor,  wretched-looking  creatures, 
untrained  to  the  march,  and  scarcely  in  hand  at  all. 
One  might  have  thoi^ht  that  they  had  been  fed  all 
through  the  winter  upon  nothing  but  chopped  straw — 
the  unnutritious  food  which  is  substituted  for  hay,  in 
a  country  where  good  hay  ought  to  be  grown  in 
immense  quantities.  Neither  in  men  nor  in  horses 
would  these  imperial  guards,  this  part  of  the  Slite  of  the 
Turkish  regular  cavalry,  be  a  match  for  a  regiment  of 
Cossacks.  I  much  doubt  whether  in  the  field  a  regi" 
ment  of  old  irregular  Turkish  cavalry,  such  as  I  saw  in 
1828,  would  not  do  better  service  than  these  lancers. 
Then  there  were  good,  compact,  active,  spirited  horses, 
the  type  of  which  now  appears  to  have  been  destroyed 
in  the  country.  We  were  struck  with  the  great  number 
of  hunchbacks  among  the  lancers. 

The  cavalry  was  followed  by  three  numerically  strong 
regiments  of  infantry,  also  of  the  imperial  guard.  The 
foot  did  not  shame  the  horse :  they  were  wearing  white 
cross-belts,  dirty  fezzes,  and  abominable  shoes;  they 
scarcely  showed  a  sign  of  a  shirt  or  any  linen ;  they  were 
carrying  their  muskets  every  way  but  the  right  way :  to 
an  eye  accustomed  to  the  sight  of  European  armies  they 
were  ^^  tag-rag  and  bob-tail  all."*     Another  thing  which 

*  I  bavo  mentioned  how  Tery  stationary  the  Turkish  troops  are.  A 
tiavelkr  who  has  been  an  English  officer  says  :•"  The  garrison  being 
concentrated  in  four  or  five  great  barracks,  the  above-mentioned  distri- 
bation  of  whole  battalions  or  regiments  in  koulooks  (guard-houses)  is 
found  more  convenient,  and  saves  shoe-leather, — ^a  desideratum  in  a  senrioe 
where  the  issxies  of  shoes  are  irregular ;  and  these,  when  issued,  are  forth- 
with converted  into  slippers,  as  no  soldier  can  enter  the  guard-house  without 


326  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXHI. 

struck  us  was  the  number  of  Nubian  blacks  employed  as 
officers.  Some  of  these  men  had,  I  believe,  belonged 
to  the  disciplined  Egyptian  army  of  Ibrahim  Pasha ; 
others  had  been  black  slaves  to  pashais  and  other  great 
people ;  and  some,  I  was  told,  had  undergone  in  their 
childhood  the  process  which  qualifies  males  for  employ- 
ment in  serraglio  and  harem.  But  take  the  best  of 
these  emancipated  black  slaves,  and  say  what  spirit^ 
what  sense  of  honour,  what  patriotism  can  be  expected 
from  them  ?  Tet  Nubians  are  frequently  found  in  the 
very  highest  posts  of  the  army,  and  commanding  and 
leading  white  men.  Some  of  our  American  fiiends  at 
Constantinople,  who  came  from  slave-holding  states 
were  at  first  much  perplexed  at  finding  that  "  niggers  *' 
could  be  majors,  colonels,  generals,  great  pashas ;  and 
I  believe  they  never  got  quite  reconciled  to  a  very 
common  sight — a  jet-black,  hideously-faced  Nubian 
officer,  with  an  embroidered  coat  and  a  diamond 
nishan,  riding  in  great  pride  and  stateliness  through 
the  streets,  followed  by  two  or  more  white  servants 
running  on  foot.  This  seemed  to  them  a  turning^  of 
the  world  upside  down. 

As  I  extended  my  observations  I  became  the  more 
convinced  that  the  Sultan  was  paying  for  a  great  many 
more  men  than  were  actually  under  arms,  and  that  his 
so-called  regular  disciplined  army  did  not  come  near  to 

leaving  his  shoes  under  the  porch.  It  results,  however,  from  this  system, 
that  the  men  are  scarcely  ever  drilled,  even  to  company  work,  and  that, 
with  the  exception  of  the  common  manual  exercise,  at  which  they  are 
expert,  they  know  nothing  of  a  soldier's  duty,  and  have  nothing  of  a 
soldier's  carriage  or  manly  hearing.  This  remark  is  applicahle  to  guards, 
line,  and  militia." — Charles  Whitb,  Esq.,  *'  Three  Years  in  Ckmstanti* 
fiople,"  vol.  iii.  p.  44. 


^^r-  m.'^M- 


Chap.  XXHI.  THE  CONSCRIPTION.  327 

150,000  men.  By  limiting  the  service  to  five  years 
Abdul  Medjid  had  greatly  injured  his  chance  of  havings 
well-trained,  veteran  soldiers.  In  many  instances,  bow- 
ever,  the  men  were  not  discharged  or  allowed  to  return 
to  their  homes,  being  kept  together  under  another 
name«  They  were  called  Redif  or  militia,  but  they 
were  in  fact  troops  of  the  line.  The  plan  of  a  local 
militia  which  would  leave  the  Turkish  population  to 
till  the  now  abandoned  soil,  the  plan  of  establishing 
militia  corps  of  mounted  rifles  which  might  guard  the 
frontiers  without  being  dragged  from  their  native  fields, 
and  other  projects  for  uniting  economy  with  defence, 
had,  I  feund,  been  repeatedly  proposed  and  as  often 
rejected  by  the  Porte, 

;  Very  few  Turks  had  a  notion  of  what  we  really 
mean  by  the  term  militia.  Others  were  afraid  of 
arming  any  portion  of  the  population  unless  it  was 
immediately  under  the  eye  of  government  and  linked 
with  the  regular  forces.  "  Were  we  to  arm  the  people 
over  in  Asia  Minor  or  up  in  the  provinces  of  Boumelia, 
the  people  would  not  pay  their  taxes!'*  So  said  a 
member  of  Beschid  Pasha's  government ;  and  my  ex- 
perience as  to  the  state  of  the  country  scarcely  encou* 
raged  me  to  contradict  him. 

Meanwhile  the  conscription,  as  I  have  repeatedly 
observed,  is  eating  up  the  remnant  of  the  Mussulman 
people  and  consuming  the  heart's  core  of  the  Empire. 
Twelve  years  before  the  time  of  my  last  tour,  an  intel- 
ligent English  traveller,  who  took  a  much  wider  range, 
noted  the  lamentable  effects  produced  by  this  system : 
he  found  villages  and  towns  depopulated  and  for  the 
greater  part  in  ruins,  uninhabited  houses  crumbling  to 


328  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIU. 

dust,  and  immense  tracts  of  the  most  fertile  soil  left 
utterly  neglected  through  want  of  men  to  till  them. 
Everywhere  he  saw  the  same  destructive  elements  at 
work.  "  The  new  conscriptions  and  levies  were  every- 
where described  as  most  oppressive  measures,  the  effect 
of  which  was  to  depopulate  whoie  districts,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  young  men  being  removed  to  the 
capital/'*  To  whatsoever  part  he  directed  his  steps 
he  saw  the  deserted  tenements  of  a  reduced  population, 
and  ruins,  ruins,  and  still  ruins !  He  anticipated  me  in 
his  account  of  the  civil  and  inoffensive  disposition  of  the 
Turkish  villagers  in  Asia  Minor ;  like  ourselves  he  felt 
himself  quite  as  safe  in  those  wild  mountain  passes  as 
in  the  streets  of  Constantinople ;  but,  also  like  ourselves, 
he  saw  tibese  poor  people  crushed  to  the  earth,  disheart- 
ened, despairing,  dying  out.  The  American,  Bishop 
Southgate,  who  followed  this  English  traveller,  the 
enterprising  Mr.  Layard,  who  followed  the  Bishop, 
my  esteemed  friend  Mr.  Longworth,  who  followed  Mr. 
Layard,  all  agreed  in  their  accounts  of  t^e  exhausting, 
fatal  effects  of  the  conscription  and  iiie  over-taxation. 
I  may  state  them  strongly  and  decidedly,  in  my  eager- 
ness that  tike  truth  should  be  made  known,  but  I 
neither  entertain  nor  advance  any  new  or  peculiar 
opinions.  Let  him  be  fif  what  country  or  political 
creed  he  might,  I  never  met  a  European  traveller  in 
the  cotintry  that  did  not  entertain  precisely  the  same 
notions  as  to  its  condition  and  the  effects  of  the  con- 
scription, that  I  had  formed  myself.  The  government 
manages  yet  to  spend  and  waste  a  vast  deal  of  money, 
dust  is  still  thrown  in  the  eyes  of  European  courts  and 

*  William  J.  Hamilton,  Ewj. 


Chap.  XXIU.  THE  CONSCRIPTION.  329 

fashionable  circles  ;  on  danse  chez  V  Amhassadeur  Otto- 
Tfum  in  Bryanstone  Square;  but  in  Turkey  there  is 
weeping  and  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth !  the  Otto- 
man civilization  is  scarcely  skin  deep,  the  administrative 
Heform  is  the  vilest  of  all  shams  I  The  country  is  irre- 
trievably ruined.  I  am  not  altogether  ignorant  of  the 
hoUowness,  thoughtlessness,  and  indifference  of  the 
merely  fashionable  world ;  but  I  do  believe  there  are 
many  who,  could  they  have  only  a  glimpse  at  the 
means  employed  to  extort  money  for  the  demands  of 
Turkish  folly  and  extravagance,  would  rush  with  dis- 
gust and  horror  out  of  that  ambassador's  house. 

Since  Mr.  Hamilton's  time  the  country  has  become 
more  and  more  depopulated,  through  the  extortions  of 
the  f^mers  of  the  revenue,  the  annual  drain  of  the  con- 
scription, and  the  resort  to  unnatural  forced  abortion. 
In  this  present  year  1849,  the  Forte  having  been 
rendered  insanely  jealous  of  the  movements  of  the 
Bussian  troops  in  the  protected  Principalities,  in  Tran- 
sylvania, and  upon  Hungary,  and  having  (I  fear)  been 
impelled  much  more  by  English  than  by  French  diplo- 
macy, have  made  costly  and  absurd  military  prepara- 
tions which  can  only  complete  the  exhaustion  and 
precipitate  the  death  of  their  Empire. 

More  than  50,000  men  and  boys  were  dragged  from 
Asia  Minor  over  to  Constantinople,  in  the  month  of 
May  last,  to  act  as  irregulars.  'If  credit  could  be  given 
to  the  Constantinople  papers,  more  than  150,000  were 
thus  caught  and  removed  from  their  homes  I  I  can 
scarcely  conceive  how  they  got  50,000,  nor  can  they 
have  done  it  without  taking  an  extensive  range  and 
depriving  many  places  of  well  nigh  their  entire  male 


330  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXUI. 

population.     A  friend  writes  to  me  from  the  plain  of 
Brusa: — 

^^  Mustapha  Nouree  Pasha  is  really  recalled  at  last, 
and  goes  to  Constantinople  in  a  day  or  two.  After  all 
his  villainies  he  is  to  retain  his  enormous  pay  of  75,000 
piastres  per  month ;  and  report  adds,  that  he  is  to  have 
the  appointment  of  Seraskier.  This  is  likely  enough, 
as  the  Sultan  has  expressed  his  very  great  satisfaction 
at  the  manner  in  which  the  levy  for  these  irregular 
troops  was  conducted  by  Mustapha  Nouree  in  the 
pashalik.  This  levy  was  conducted  quite  h  la  Turque. 
Poor  fellows  were  surprised,  knocked  down,  and  bound, 
and  then  told  that  they  must  go  as  volunteers  to  Stam- 
boul,  to  help  the  Sultan  to  fight  the  Muscov  ghiaours. 
Old  and  young,  from  fourteen  to  sixty  years  of  age, 
were  seized  and  sent  to  Constantinople.  In  fact,  almost 
every  Turkish  villager  that  could  be  found  to  hold  a 
musket  was  packed  o£  Some  12,000  or  14,000  men 
were  embarked  from  this  neighbourhood  at  Moudania 
and  Ghemlik.  You  know  what  was  the  state  of  the 
country  before  this;  and  you  may  well  imagine  the 
present  distress  and  misery.  Detachments  of  Ihese 
poor  miserable  creatures  were  escorted  by  dragoons  and 
forwarded  to  the  capital  by  steamers.  Some  thousands, 
however,  have  already  escaped  and  found  their  way 
back,  and  the  dragoons  are  now  employed  in  hunting 
them  down  as  if  they  were  game  or  wild  beasts.  Such 
of  them  as  are  caught  are  brought  down  to  Brusa  in 
chains,  or  tied  together  with  ropes  and  cords.  Fancy 
what  splendid  troops  they  will  make  I  Fancy  how 
valorously  they  will  fight  the  Bussians — should  it  ever 
come  to  that  I    Then  imagine  the  fine  sport  and  free 


Chap.  XXIH.        GREAT  NUMBERS  OF  DESERTERS,  331 

quarters  of  these  dragoons,  let  loose  upon  the  villagers, 
and  generally  without  any  ofScers  with  them  I  The 
Yuz-Bashis,  the  Bim-Bashis,  averse  to  fatigue  and 
trouble,  smoke  their  tchibouques  in  Brusa,  or  under  the 
plane-trees  among  the  fountains  of  Bournk  Bashi,  or  up 
the  cool  Dere,  which  you  so  much  affected,  and  the 
troopers  go  rampaging  about,  and  doing  whatever  they 
like  best  to  the  people.  It  is  a  complete  reign  of  terror. 
They  say  that  a  camp  of  100,000  men  is  to  be  formed 
over  in  Europe  at  Daoud  Pasha ;  that  there  is  to  be 
another  camp  of  50,000  men  in  Asia  to  watch  the 
Bussian  frontier  on  this  side,  and  that  a  great  corps 
de  reserve  is  to  be  collected  at  Trebizond.  How  tiiey 
will  be  able  to  feed  and  give  any  pay  to  these  hosts 
of  irr^ulars,  who  have  not  left  behind  them  hands 
to  reap  the  crops,  far  surpasses  my  power  of  com- 
prehension." 

It  requires  no  great  power  of  mind  to  comprehend 
the  utter  uselessness  of  such  levies,  and  the  cruel  blow 
diplomacy  has  inflicted  on  the  country  by  urging  the 
government  to  make  them.  In  Europe  they  would 
only  embarrass  the  regular  semi-'disciplined  army;  on 
the  frontiers  in  Asia,  where  they  would  have  the  field 
almost  entirely  to  themselves,  they  could  not  stand  an 
hour  against  the  veteran  battalions  and  well  practised 
artillery  of  the  Russians — they  would  perish  or  run 
away,  just  as  they  did  in  1828-29.  I  shrewdly  suspect 
that  this  time  they  would  not  fight  at  all,  and  that  the 
rural  population  in  that  quarter  would  receive  the 
troops  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  with  open  arms. 
Several  travellers,  who  had  been  recently  among  that 
population,  had  come  to  the  decided  conclusion  that  the 


332  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXI  IT. 

great  majority  of  it  would  offer  no  resistance  to  Russia ; 
and  that  if  their  mosques  and  their  women  were  re- 
spected, and  a  little  of  the  Tzar's  wealth  made  to  flow 
among  them,  they  would  remain  quiet,  submissive,  and 
contented  subjects  of  the  conqueror.  The  Christian 
Rayahs  in  those  parts  were  all  looking  to  the  coming 
of  the  Russians  as  to  a  millennium. 

The  Kurds,  the  bravest  and  most  active  and  best 
mounted  of  all  the  Sultan's  Asiatic  subjects,  are  decidedly 
and  notoriously  disaffected.  They  are  enraged  at  the 
downfall  of  Bedr-Ehan-Bey,  and  eager  to  retaliate  on 
the  Turks  the  chastisement  they  received  at  their  hands 
in  the  campaign  of  1847-  Towards  those  frontiers  the 
old  fanaticism  is  fitful  and  uncertain  in  its  operation, 
and  limited  in  its  range.  Tou  will  find  fanaticism  here 
— indifferentism  there.  In  some  regions  the  popula- 
tion is  Mussulman  in  little  more  than  name.  Por  ex- 
ample, at  Sivas  the  people  are  furious  Mahometans — 
at  Mosul  they  are  meek,  most  tolerant,  and  desirous  of 
the  society  and  fi*iendship  of  Christians.  These  people 
of  Mosul  are  descended  from  Chaldean  Christians,  who 
were  forcibly  converted  to  Mahometanism.  They  make 
no  secret  of  saying  among  Christians,  *^  Our  forefathers 
became  Mussulmans  when  the  Turks  were  strong,  and 
we  and  our  children  will  become  Christians  when  tiie 
Russians  take  this  country  and  are  strong  in  it" 
Even  now  these  people  frequently  conform  to  Christian 
rites. 

Nothing  had  been  done  to  put  that  frontier  in  a  state 
of  defence.  It  is  now  as  it  was  in  1836,  when  Mr. 
Hamilton  travelled  along  it ;  and  it  was  in  1836  as  it 
had  been  in  1828,  and  during  the  whole  of  that  losing 


Chap.  XXm.    STATE  OF  THE  FRONTIERS.  333 

and  most  humiliating  war  with  Russia.  *^  Not  a  place  of 
arms,  not  a  fort,  not  a  blockhouse  has  been  erected ; 
nay,  in  the  long  space  of  twenty  years  they  have  not 
strengthened  nor  in  any  way  repaired  the  old  walls 
which  the  Tzar's  artillery  Icnocked  about  their  ears  in 
1828,  when  Eyoub  Pasha,  with  50,000  irregulars,  fled 
before  a  small  vanguard  of  Russian  horse.  On  the 
other  side,  the  Russians  have  strengthened  their  works 
and  erected  new  ones ;  and  the  neighbouring  Turkish 
governors,  as  devoid  of  patriotism  as  of  common  honesty, 
have  sold  them  timber  and  other  materials.  From  the 
Turkish  forests  of  Soghanli  Dagh  the  Russians  were 
supplied  with  timber  for  the  erection  of  their  fortress  at 
Gumri ;  the  Turkish  peasants  were  compelled  to  cut  the 
wood  gratis^  and  the  Pasha  of  Kars  received  70,000 
ducats  from  the  professed  enemies  of  his  country  for 
selling  it*'* 

Vast  are  the  sacrifices  caused  to  the  Turks  by  the 
progression  of  that  "revolution  principle'*  at  which 
they  were  at  first  inclined  to  chuckle  and  rejoice, 
believing  (their  Christian  subjects  being  all  disarmed) 
that  it  could  not  find  materials  upon  which  to  work  in 
their  country,  and  that  it  would  cripple  the  strength  of 
most  of  the  nations  of  Christendom.  The  sacrifices 
have  been  as  ridiculous  as  vast :  they  form  but  one  pro* 
digious  mass  of  absurdity.  Of  what  use  are  these  raw 
recruits — these  puny,  sickly  boys  ?  *  What  military  ser- 
vice can  be  expected  from  the  despairing,  the  heart- 
broken peasants,  dragged  from  their  homes  in  Asia 
Minor  ?  The  Forte  may  talk  of  putting  the  empire  in 
an  "imposing  attitude;**    but  there  is  nobody  at  all 

*  William  J.  Hamilton :  **  ResearcheB  in  Asia  Minor,**  vol.  i.  p.  190. 


334  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIH, 

acquainted  with  the  state  of  the  country  and  the  quality 
of  the  army,  and  the  worthlessness  in  war  of  these  great 
levies  of  irregulars,  but  will  laugh  at  her  preparations 
and  scorn  her  presumption. 

And  why  accelerate  your  ruin  by  making  these  costly 
preparations,  when  Russia  had  no  more  idea  of  march- 
ing upon  Constantinople  than  she  had  of  invading  Eng- 
land? Your  reiterated  treaties  gave  the  Emperor 
Nicholas  the  iuU  right  of  marching  into  the  protected 
Principalities ;  far  more  quickly  and  effectually  than  you 
could  have  done  it,  he  put  down  the  revolutionists  and 
anarchists  in  those  provinces ;  you  claimed  a  joint  mili- 
tary occupation  with  the  Tzar ;  the  treaties  gave  you 
that  right,  Nicholas  offered  no  objection,  and  you  had 
last  year  a  number  of  troops  in  the  Principalities  equal 
to  that  of  the  Russians.  What  right  have  you  to  oppose 
or  to  be  jealous  of  the  marching  of  a  Russian  army  into 
Transylvania  and  Hungary  to  succour  the  excellent 
young  Emperor  of  Austria  ?  You  might  well  regret 
that  England,  by  abandoning  Austria  at  a  tremendous 
crisis  and  taking  part  with  her  worst  enemies,  has  abso- 
lutely forced  Austria  to  throw  herself  into  the  arms  of 
Russia ;  but  you  cannot  tell  Austria  that  she  is  not  to 
be  succoured,  or  Russia  that  she  b  not  to  succour. 
Russia  has  a  more  unquestionable  right  to  aid  her  im- 
perial ally  than  England  and  Austria  had  to  aid  you  in 
1840,  when,  but  for  their  armed  interference,  Ibrahim 
Pasha  would,  at  the  very  least,  have  dismembered 
your  expiring  empire.  Yet  by  a  deplorable  diplomacy 
the  Porte  has  been  made  to  display  not  merely  a 
jealousy  of  Russia,  but  also  a  hostile  feeling  to  Austria, 
the  best  protectress  of  Turkey.    Reschid  Pasha,  the 


i^HH^P^'^  —  ■       •^>»i^i»J^-l^^^»'^WI— — ^»i^— 1iM^» 


Chap.  XXHI.  AUSTRIA  AND  RUSSIA.  335 

Vizier,  and  his  satellite  Ali  Pasha,  the  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affitirs,  have  been  recently  receiving  envoys  or 
emissaries  from  Kossuth,  and  at  least  listening  to  pro- 
posals for  an  alliance  between  the  absolute  despotic 
Ottoman  empire  and  the  anarchic  mad  republic  of 
Hungary  I  Reschid  has  been  following  up  what  he  con- 
siders his  proper  vocation,  and  for  which  he  believes 
himself  to  have  a  genius  and  very  peculiar  qualifications 
— il  a  dtS  filer  la  politique  haiUe  etfine. 

The  London  journals  which  are  believed  to  express 
the  opinions  of  Lord  Palmerston,  and  to  be  occasionally 
enlivened  by  his  Lordship's  own  pen,  have  of  late  been 
recommending  an  alliance  between  the  Sultan  and  the 
anarchist  Kossuth,  and  a  war  in  which  these  two  very 
compatible  allies  should  face  the  united  powers  of  Aus- 
tria and  Russia!  With  a  matchless  reliance  on  the 
ignorance  and  gullibility  of  the  world,  they  have  been 
representing  that  Turkey  and  Hungary  are  "natural 
allies."  Of  all  the  monstrous  absurdities  which  have 
proceeded  from  that  political  school,  this  is  by  far  the 
most  monstrous!  Let  it  be  acted  upon,  or  let  the 
Turks  be  agitated  for  any  such  scheme,  and  then, 
indeed,  in  three  months  you  will  have  a  Russian  army 
in  Constantinople.  Already  a  hostile  humour  has  been 
exhibited,  for  which  the  two  great  imperial  powers  will 
not  fail  to  call  the  Turks  to  account.  La  vieiUe  maison 
cTAiUriche  n'est  pas  encore  morte.  * 

*  The  passages  in  the  text  were  written  in  the  month  of  June,  1849, 
months  before  the  great  ^racoa  caused  by  the  demand  of  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  for  the  extradition  of  Bern  and  his  followers,  who,  in  all,  amounted 
to  nearly  5000  desperate  men, — a  force  and  a  leader  which  (even  had  there 
been  no  treaties  of  extradition)  no  power  or  powers  would  have  left  quietly 
so  close  upon  the  frontiers. 

For 


336       '  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXIII. 

With  her  half-disciplined  troops,  Turkey  may  for  a 
time  keep  down  insurrection  amoug  her  divided,  hos- 
tile, unamalgamable  populations,  and  even  check  the 
revolts  of  Kurds  and  Albanians ;  but  she  cannot  by  her- 
self defend  her  frontiers,  or  any  part  of  her  territory, 
against  a  European  army,  and  if  she  attempts  to  move 
beyond  her  frontiers — why  then  good-night  to  the  bouse 
of  Osman,  which,  wherever  established,  hag  been  a 
scourge  and  a  curse !     With  perfect  repose  it  may  yet 

For  good  fifteen  months— or  from  the  end  of  June,  1848 — Turkey  had 
been  provoking  the  hostility  of  Russia.  The  affaire  Bern  only  brought  the 
quarrel  to  a  head.  At  every  rumour  of  an  Austrian  or  Eussian  defeat, 
Reflchid  Pasha's  government  displayed  an  irritating  joy.  Among  the  many 
Polish  refugees  in  Turkey  were  some  not  quite  so  tranquil  as  the  poor 
soldiers  on  the  Asiatic  farm.  There  was  a  certain  Ck)unt,  who  had  constant 
access  to  the  Turkish  government  and  grandees,  and  who  was  incessantly 
deluding  them  with  wild  political  visions,  and  exciting  them  to  imfHTudent 
and  rash  measures.  C'itait  un  veritabie  houte-feu.  As  early  as  the  begin- 
ning of  April,  1848,  this  Polish  Coimt  had  made  up  his  mind  that  revolu- 
tion would  make  the  tour  of  the  world  ;  that  it  was  all  up  with  Austria 
and  with  monarchical  and  aristocratical  England ;  that  Russia  would  soon 
be  rent  in  pieces ;  that  Poland  would  be  re-established  as  the  dominant 
power  of  the  north ;  and  that,  in  close  alliance  with  her,  Turkey  would 
soon  recover  all  and  more  than  all  that  the  Tzar  and  the  Kaiser  had  ever 
taken  from  her.  He  was  a  man  of  afltonishing  activity  ;  he  seemed  gifted 
with  ubiquity ;  he  was  everywhere  in  no  time ;  he  could  exhibit  his  ombres 
Chinoises  to  a  dozen  pashas  in  a  day.  And  all  this  performance  was  per- 
fectly well  known  at  the  Russian  embassy. 

In  this  Pole  I  saw  some  of  the  many  proofs  I  have  witnessed  of  Polish 
gratitude.  To  England  he  had  been  indebted  for  hospitality  and  for  some- 
thing more,  and  England  was  at  that  moment  feeding  a  herd  of  his  exiled 
countrymen.  Yet  he  had  not  a  good  or  a  kind  word  to  say  for  her.  He 
was  longing  to  see  her  institutions  overturned,  her  power  broken.  In  my 
presence  and  in  that  of  another  Englishman,  he  said  that  England  was  the 
foe  of  freedom  and  decidedly  retrograde ;  that  England  was  not  d  la  hauktar 
dei  oirccnstances. 

"  Les  AngUm  n^ont  rien  h  /aire  avec  le  cantinerU  1  JBd  bah !  QuUIb  bc 
iiennent  h  leurs  comtoirs  et  Uutb  fahriques,  Jh  ne pensent  Jamais  qu*d  leurs 
profits  ccmmerciaiix" 

But  such  was  the  belief,  or  such  the  talk»  of  every  expatriated  Pole  I 
encotmtered  in  the  deplorable  year  1848« 


Chap.  XXUI.  THE  ARSENAL  BARRACKS.  337 

live  on  a  few  years ;  but  so  sure  as  it  moves  or  attempts 
any  violent  action,  it  will  fall  to  pieces  like  a  body  taken 
out  of  an  old  coffin  and  exposed  to  air  and  motion. 

The  Arsenal  barracks,  in  which  the  marines  and 
most  of  the  sailors  of  the  Sultan's  fleet  were  lodged, 
were  spacious  enough,  but  excessively  unhealthy.  The 
long  but  rather  narrow  slip  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Golden  Horn,  enclosed  by  walls,  and  serving  as  the 
arsenal,  dockyard,  etc.  etc.,  is  a  most  insalubrious  spot, 
being  backed  and  flanked  by  Turkish  burying-grounds, 
in  which  the  dead  bodies  are  scarcely  more  than  covered 
with  earth,  by  ridges  of  hills  which  prevent  the  free  cir- 
culation of  the  air,  or  by  close,  thickly  inhabited  quar- 
ters, which  tend  to  the  same  effect,  and  help  to  poison 
the  atmosphere  by  their  filth  and  refuse,  not  one  of 
these  quarters  being  drained.  Within  the  long  enclo- 
sure, and  close  under  its  walls,  are  foul,  stagnant 
ditches,  sufficient  to  breed  fever  for  the  whole  neigh- 
bourhood. 

One  broad  black  ditch  traversed  in  the  middle,  run- 
ning right  across  the  Arsenal  from  the  hills  to  the  port. 
The  only  bridge  across  it  consisted  of  loose  planks  laid 
nearly  level  with  the  usual  surface  of  the  fetid  pool. 
In  the  wet  we^ither  these  planks  were  at  times  under 
the  surface  of  the  foul  fluid,  through  which  people  had 
to  stride  in  their  mud-boots.  As  the  weather  grew  hot, 
the  stench,  in  passing,  was  enough  to  knock  one  over. 
Yet  this  was  the  only  passage  from  one  part  of  the 
Arsenal  to  the  other;  it  was  trodden  every  day  by 
great  pashas  and  reforming  and  civilizing  beys  and 
efiendis.  Nothing  so  easy  as  to  deepen  the  ditch  (it 
was  of  no  length),  to  clear  it,  and  give  it  a  free  course 

VOL.  n.  z 


338  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXlll. 

into  the  port,  whence  an  ever-active  cun'ent  would 
sweep  away  the  immondices  into  the  open  Sea  of  Mar- 
mora. Over  and  over  again,  and  through  a  long  series 
of  years,  by  Frenchmen,  Italians,  Englishmen,  and 
Americans,  the  simple  operation  had  been  recommended 
and  urged  upon  the  Turks,  as  a  process  which  would 
cost  very  little,  and  tend  most  materially  to  cure  the 
unhealthiness  of  the  place;  but  the  Turks  had  said 
*^  Baccalum,"  and  had  done  nothing ;  and  I  found  this 
horrible  ditch  just  as  I  had  left  it  in  1828.  I  see  and 
smell  it  yet. 

In  some  other  particulars  the  Arsenal  was  materially 
improved.  Compared  with  the  chaotic  disorder  in 
which  it  used  to  be,  one  might  almast  say  it  was  now  in 
tolerable  order.  This  change  for  the  better  had  been 
produced  by  Captain  (now  Admiral  Sir  Baldwin) 
Walker,  by  two  American  ship-builders,  and  by 
Englishmen  employed  by  the  Forte.  But  as  all  these 
gentlemen  had  been  dismissed,  and  only  a  few  English 
mechanics  retained,  things  were  said  to  be  again  getting 
out  of  "  ship-shape." 

A  certain  number  of  Turks,  Greeks,  and  Armenians 
had  been  instructed  by  these  foreigners,  and  the  two 
American  builders  had  left  behind  then\  models,  lines, 
and  all  manner  of  guides  in  marine  architecture.  These 
lines  and  guides  the  builders  were  now  following  me- 
chanically, and  without  the  slightest  deviation.  Were 
a  fire  to  consume  what  the  Americans  left,  they  would 
be  all  at  a  stand-still. 

They  had  recently  repaired  an  old  frigate  and 
launched  a  new  war-steamer.  All  that  they  had  on 
the  stocks  were  a  steam-frigate  and  one  smaller  steamer, 


n      I  J        - 


Chap.  XXHI.  SmP-BUILDING.  339 

and  these  were  getting  on  very  slowly.  I  was  frequently 
in  the  Arsenal,  and  never  failed  to  watch  their  ship- 
building proceedings.  It  was  languid  work ;  the  only 
men  who  showed  real  activity,  quickness,  and  intelli- 
gence, were  the  Greeks.  They  were  mixing  seasoned 
timber  with  timber  that  was  absolutely  green  and  pro- 
portionately heavy ;  they  were  uniting  good  wood  with 
bad.  Hence,  no  doubt,  the  cause  of  their  being  per- 
plexed at  nearly  every  launch  by  finding  the  vessel  so 
much  heavier  than  she  ought  to  be.  The  assistants 
and  common  labourers  were  all  galley-slaves-^— criminals 
or  unlucky  fellows  condemned  to  imprisonment  in  the 
horrible  Bagnio,  which  stands  within  this  enclosure  and 
is  a  dependency  of  the  Arsenal.  Such  men  are  hardly 
to  be  expected  to  work  with  a  will ;  and  then  here  they 
are  all  made  to  work  in  heavy  clanking  fetters.  We 
observed  about  seventy  Albanians  thus  employed. 
They  were  some  of  the  prisoners  that  had  been  taken 
at  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  in  Albania,  in  the 
preceding  autumn.  Since  their  arrival  here  their  num- 
bers had  been  thinned  by  malaria,  cholera,  and  the 
worst  of  gaol  fevers — the  last  being  a  distemper  from 
which  the  Bagnio  is  rarely  free.  The  survivors  looked 
most  wretched,  and  as  if  they  were  feeling  in  its  full 
and  crudest  extent  the  difference  between  this  pestilen- 
tial atmosphere  and  their  own  sweet  mountain  air. 
While  a  gang  was  at  work  it  was  watched  by  three  or 
four  soldiers ;  when  it  had  to  move  from  one  place  to 
another  it  was  attended  by  ten  or  a  dozen  marines  or 
soldiers,  with  muskets  on  shoulder  and  bayonets  fixed. 
Thus  those  who  did  very  little  work  had  to  be  watched 
by  a  number  of  men  nearly  equal  to  their  own  number. 

z2 


340  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTmY.  CHiLP.  XXHI. 

Counting  soldiers  and  convicts,  I  have  seen  fifty  fellows 
employed  in  bringing  up  a  bit  of  timber  which  in  our 
dockyards  would  have  been  put  upon  a  truck  and 
brought  up  by  a  couple  of  labourers. 

Within  the  Arsenal,  as  well  as  beyond  its  walls,  I  had 
good  evidence  to  prove  that  the  old  Turkish  spirit  of 
gaspillage,  jobbery,  and  corruption  had  lost  little  of  its 
vigour.  I  believe  there  were  honest  Turks  there ;  I 
think  I  knew  two;  but  these  were  not  men  in  the 
highest  authority — they  were  not  administrators — ^they 
had  nothing  to  do  with  buying  or  paying. 

The  pleasantest  and  best  thing  we  ever  found  in  die 
Arsenal  was  the  marines'  band.  The  young  Turks  who 
composed  it  played  well,  and  rather  frequently  played 
good  Italian  or  German  music.  But  generally  the 
bands  may  be  said  to  be  by  far  the  best  parts  of  the 
Sultan's  army.  Some  of  them  might  quite  shame  our 
ordinary  regimental  bands.  Sultan  Mahmoud  devoted 
much  attention  to  this  branch  of  the  service,  and  em- 
ployed a  number  of  Italians  as  instructors  and  band- 
masters. His  son,  passionately  fond  of  music,  has  fol- 
lowed his  example ;  more  Italians  and  some  Germans 
have  been  employed,  and  a  good  musical  school  has 
been  formed  by  Signor  Donizetti,  a  brother  of  the 
popular  composer.  An  Italian  professor  assured  me 
that  the  young  Turks  had  naturally  a  very  good  ear, 
that  they  were  quick  at  this  kind  of  learning,  and  in 
many  cases  very  fond  of  the  study  and  practice  of  music 
The  worst  of  it  was  that  they  still  retained  their  fond- 
ness for  the  old  Turkish  wind  instruments,  which  are 
cuttingly  sharp  and  shrill — now  a  scream  and  now  a 
wail.     The  Italian  music  they  played  had  very  seldom 


■^■^"^^^^^"•■^^•^^^■■^••■■^•''^■^•^■^■^^^^■•^-J'l     ■    -m  ■^p^iv-wx^^^-w^H^B^i^BHimv* 


Chap.  XXHI.     TUBES  NOT  A  MARITIME  PEOPLE.  341 

a  bold  martial  character;  it  was  not  music  to  put 
mettle  into  a  soldier.  Their  own  native  Turkish  music 
all  sounded  like  a  lament  or  a  deathnsong.  I  could 
never  hear  it  wailing  across  the  waters  or  along  the 
desolate  hill  sides  without  fancying  that  it  said,  ^^  Our 
glory  is  departed,  our  strength  is  gone,  our  hour  is  come^ 
we  are  departing." 

In  the  spring  of  1848,  between  marines  who  were 
living  in  barracks,  and  shipmen  (they  could  not  be 
called  sailors)  who  were  doing  nothing,  and  for  the 
most  part  living  on  shore,  Abdul  Medjid  had  nearly 
12,000  men  for  his  navy.  This  caused  a  prodigious 
and,  for  the  most  part,  a  very  unnecessary  expense. 
The  fleet  for  nine  months  in  the  year  is  in  port  in  the 
Golden  Horn,  and  dismantled.  A  good  squadron  of 
steamers  is  all  the  fleet  that  Turkey  requires,  and  is 
more  than  all  she  can  use  without  the  aid  of  foreigners. 
The  Turks  never  were,  and  never  will  be,  a  maritime 
people.  The  peasants  that  are  seized  in  Asia  Minor  or 
up  in  the  European  provinces,  and  sent  to  the  Arsenal 
to  be  turned  into  marines  or  sailors,  dread  the  sea,  and 
hate  it  with  a  more  than  Celtic  hatred.  The  Greeks, 
who  formed  the  strength  of  the  crews  of  the  Ottoman 
men-of-war  before  the  Greek  revolution,  are  by  nature 
a  maritime  people,  and  become  by  practice  excellent 
sailors — the  best,  perhaps,  in  all  the  Mediterranean. 
But  these  Greeks  are  now  excluded  from  the  service. 
It  is  said  that  they  will  not  enter  voluntarily,  and  that 
the  Sultan  and  government  do  not  like  to  impress  them. 
I  believe  that  they  are  afraid  of  having  Greeks  on 
board ;  the  sympathies  of  these  men  are  with  the  Hel- 
lenes of  King  Otho  and  their  co-religionists  the  Rua- 


342  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXHI. 

sians.  In  a  time  of  trouble  or  war  Keschid's  amalga- 
mation theory  would  be  but  slight  security  should  a 
Turkish  man-of-war,  half  manned  with  Greeks,  come 
alongside  of  a  Russian  ship  in  the  Black,  or  an  Hel* 
lenic  ship  in  the  White  Sea.  The  Turks  cannot  trust 
the  Greeks,  and  therefore  they  do  not  employ  the  only 
subjects  they  have  that  are  capable  of  being  made  good 
sailors.  The  Armenians,  a  thoroughly  Asiatic  inland 
people,  are  as  averse  to  the  sea  as  the  Turks,  and  have 
still  less  stomach  for  fighting  than  for  sailing. 

It  will  not  be  easy  to  forget  the  awkwardness  dis- 
played in  a  vice-admiral's  barge  on  the  Golden  Horn. 
Our  jovial,  rotund,  and  rubicund  old  friend,  Osman 
Pasha  (one  of  the  very  few  among  them  that  knew  any- 
thing of  practical  seamanship),  would  take  us  off  to  the 
fleet  which  lay  moored  opposite  to  the  Arsenal,  in  his 
own  boat  and  in  good  style.  At  starting,  one  of  the 
boatmen  caught  a  crab,  and  another  let  his  oar  fall  over- 
board. Old  Osman  became  as  red  as  a  turkey-cock. 
We  had  to  cross  some  hawsers ;  the  fiteersman  sent  us 
bang  upon  one  of  them,  and  if  there  had  been  any  sea 
we  might  have  been  turned  keel  uppermost.  The 
Pasha's  objurgations  only  made  the  poor  devils  more 
confused  and  stupid,  and  if  at  last  we  got  free  of  those 
hawsers  without  a  wet  jacket,  it  was  more  than  I  had 
expected.  We  went  over  the  Capitan  Pasha's  ship  and 
three  other  ships  of  the  line,  carrying  from  80  to  120 
guns  each.  As  the  masts  were  struck,  and  nearly  all 
the  rigging  down,  the  points  in  which  the  Turks  are  so 
deficient  were  not  observable.  The  decks  were  tole- 
rably clean  and  orderly.  Stores,  arms,  and  all  things 
below  deck  were  kept  in  excellent  order.     There  was  a 


tmmmtmmmmtt^    m  ■■  *'iilfc^  . 


«|M"WI 


Chap,  XXIH.  TURKISH  MEN-OF-WAR,  343 

proper  place  for  everything,  and  everything  was  in  its 
place.  This  was  a  great  improvement  on  the  practice 
of  former  days,  and  I  believe  the  Turks  have  been  in- 
debted for  it  to  the  strenuous,  persevering  efforts  of 
Admiral  Sir  Baldwin  Walker,  while  in  the  Sultan's 
service.  The  guns  were  good,  and  kept  clean ;  many  of 
them  were  English,  and  they  had  all  good  locks.  The 
tomkins  were  coated  with  brass,  which  was  kept  bright 
and  shining.  These  showy  tomkins,  and  the  practice  of 
painting  the  ships'  sides  with  broad,  alternate  stripes  of 
white  and  black,  much  injured  the  warlike  appearance  of 
the  fleet,  destroying  bold,  massy  simplicity,  and  giving 
the  ships  a  theatrical,  harlequin  appearance.  We  visited 
a  frigate  with  a  very  beautiful  hull,  and  found  it  in  much 
the  same  condition  as  the  ships  of  the  line,  everything 
below  deck  being  in  good  order.  We  went  over  an 
enormously  lai^e  brig,  which  was  very  solidly  built,  and 
said  to  be  a  first-rate  sea-boat.  Of  course  our  friend 
Osman  Pasha  took  us  only  to  the  ships  that  were  in 
best  condition.  *  We  next  visited  the  war-steamer 
Medjidieh,  which  had  been  launched  the  preceding 
summer  at  the  Arsenal.  She  was  a  roomy,  splendid- 
looking  vessel,  but  too  heavily  timbered.  She  was  of 
1600  tons,  and  with  Maudslay's  fine  engines  of  400- 
horse  power  she  scarcely  made  more  than  five  knots  an 
hour  in  descending  the  Sea  of  Marmora  with  the  current 
in  her  favour.  What  she  would  make  against  wind  and 
current  may  be  conceived.  An  English  engineer  told 
me  that  she  was  next  to  useless,  and  that  so  she  must 
remain  unless  engines  of  much  higher  power  were  put 
into  her.  Her  cabin  was  most  elegantly  fitted  up  and 
decorated.    There  was  a  fire-place  of  pure  white  marble. 


344  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.         Chap.  XXTTT. 

ornamented  with  gold  arabesques,  that  was  as  pretty  a 
thing  as  could  be  seen.     The  whole  cabin  was  like  an 
elegant  drawing-room ;  but  not  a  thing  in  it  had  been 
done  by  Turkish  hands,  or  by  the  hands  of  any  of  the 
country  people.      It   was  all  the  work  of  foreigners 
settled  in  Galata  and  Pera.    Generally,  the  cabins  of  the 
ships  we  went  over  were  exceedingly  handsome.     Near 
to  this  Medjidieh  lay  the  Tahif,  another  war-steamer 
of  about  the  same  size  and  force.     Her  engines  also 
were  found  of  insufficient  power.    We  saw  no  other  war- 
steamers.    The  Turks  may  have  about  a  dozen  common 
steamers  of  inconsiderable  size  employed  as  passage- 
boats,  but  these,  except  as  tugs,  would  not  be  available  in 
war.     Our  Yassitei  Tidjaret,  though  a  frigate  in  size,  is 
too  slightly  built  ever  to  be  a  war-ship.    All  the  splendid 
steamers  on  the  Black  Sea,  built  by  Pitcher  on  the 
London  river  for  the  Russians,  are  fit  for  war.     Three 
small,  English-built  steamers  have  been  added  since  our 
departure,  and  I  believe  one  of  the  steamers  on  the 
stocks  in  the  Arsenal  has  been  finished  and  fitted  out ; 
but  as  yet  the  Sultan  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  the 
embryo  of  a  steam  navy.     There  were  but  few  men 
afloat  in  the  ships  we  visited,  and  these  poor  fellows 
looked  quite  out  of  their  element.     Instead  of  round 
jackets  they  all  wore    long,   loose,   gray  great-coats, 
coming   nearly  down    to  their    heels — an    unseemly, 
slovenly  garment,  and  the  most  inconvenient  of  all  on 
board  ship.  They  looked  rather  like  invalids  in  an  hos- 
pital than  mariners ;  they  were  docile  and  dull ;  there 
was  no  life  or  brio  among  them,  although  they  were 
nearly  all  young  fellows.     We  could  tell,  from  their 
countenances,  that  many  of  them  were  peasants  from 


Chap.  XXHI.  OFFICERS  OF  THE  NAVY.  345 

the  interior  of  Asia  Minor.  In  every  ship  there  was  a 
forecastle,  fitted  out  as  an  hospital,  witiht  iron  post- 
bedsteads  ;  but  we  saw  no  sick ;  the  patients  had  been 
removed  to  the  badly  situated  navy-hospital,  where 
people  were  dying  rapidly  of  cholera.  Their  chances 
of  recovery  would  have  been  far  greater  on  board. 
Osman  Pasha  thought  so  too ;  but  the  hekims  did  not 
like  the  trouble  of  going  ofi^  to  the  ships  in  rough,  cold, 
rainy  weather,  and  the  Capitan  Pasha  had  ordered  that 
they  should  all  be  sent  to  the  hospital.  The  officers 
wore  brown  frock-coats,  with  a  little  gold  embroidery 
on  the  collars — brown  being  the  colour  chosen  for  the 
uniform  of  the  Sultan's  navy.  They  were  civil,  very 
quiet  men,  but  not  one  of  them  had  the  look  or  carriage 
of  a  sailor.  Of  all  the  young  men  who  have  been 
educated  in  England  and  France  we  scarcely  saw  one 
in  the  fleet.  Their  number,  in  actiw  service  in  the 
army,  seemed  to  be  exceedingly  small.  Many  of  them 
had  been  entirely  neglected  after  their  return  from 
Christendom  to  Constantinople — set  aside  as  if  they 
were  suspect  Others  had  been  put  in  very  inferior 
places,  where  their  acquirements  were  of  no  use.  Some 
had  rapidly  forgotten  all  that  they  had  learned,  and 
were  returning  to  the  vegetable  life  of  a  mere  Turk. 
One  of  the  smartest  of  the  whole  lot,  a  gentlemanly 
young  man  who  had  passed  an  apprenticeship  in  English 
men-of-war,  and  who  as  yet  spoke  our  language  like  an 
Englishman,  had  never  any  higher  employment  than 
that  of  occasionally  taking  charge  of  the  tub  of  a  steam- 
boat that  ran  between  the  capital  and  the  Princes' 
Islands.  The  fortunate  few  who  had  been  rapidly  pro- 
moted had  been  put  in  all  sorts  of  places,  and  linked 


346  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIIL 

themselves  with  the  Armenian  sera%;  had  become 
pashas,  and  were  growing  fat,  idle,  corrupt,  and  useless. 
Such  is  a  correct  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  young 
Turks  that  had  been  sent  into  Christendom  for  educa- 
tion.  It  may  be  suspected  that  few  of  them  returned 
true  Mussulmans,  or  brought  back  with  them  any  re- 
ligion whatever,  I  was,  however,  told  of  several  of 
them  who  had  gone  strongly  into  the  fanatical  and  anti- 
reform  line.  This  may  have  proceeded  in  part  from 
their  wish  to  remove  unfavourable  suspicions,  and  in 
part  from  their  disappointments  in  obtaining  employ- 
ment and  promotion.  AH  the  boudeursj  however  small 
their  belief  or  however  loose  their  practice,  seemed  to 
be  taking  to  fanaticism. 

•  Admitting  that  six  of  them  were  old,  crazy,  and 
worthless,  Osman  Pasha  said  that  the  Sultan  had  eighteen 
ships  of  the  line.  We  could  never  count  more  than 
twelve,  and  of  these,  three  seemed  to  be  past  all  mend« 
ing ;  and  five  others,  I  was  assured,  were  in  so  bad  case 
that  were  they  to  fire  a  broadside  half  of  their  sides 
would  follow  the  fire.  Of  frigates  and  corvettes  we  did 
not  see  more  than  ten.  There  may  have  been  a  ship  of 
the  line  and  one  or  two  frigates  laid  up  in  ordinary  in 
the  Gulf  of  Salonica,  and  a  similar  force  in  the  nook 
opposite  Gallipoli,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Dardanelles ; 
but  other  force  there  certainly  was  none.  A  very  com- 
petent English  judge,  who  had  long  had  his  eye  upon 
them,  declared  that  not  more  than  five  ships  of  the  line 
were  fit  for  war  or  were  even  seaworthy.  Our  jour- 
nalists of  the  movement  party,  who  affect  to  be  quite 
enchanted  at  the  recent  activity  of  the  Turks,  and  at  the 
prospect  of  their  having  a  *^ brush"  with  Austria  and 


—    <••    ' 


1 


Chap.  XXin.  SIR  BALDWIN  WALKER.  347 

Bussia,  Dot  satisfied  with  a£Brming  that  the  Sultan  has 
under  arms  300,000  men,  of  whom  one  half  are  well 
disciplined,  are  talking  about  the  Sultan's  splendid  fleet 
of  40  sail  of  the  line  1 1  But  even  if  they  had  such  a 
number  of  big  ships,  of  what  service  would  they  be  with 
such  crews  ?  The  Russians  may  not  be  the  best,  but 
they  are  prime  sailors  compared  with  the  Turks.  An 
American,  one  of  Captain  Lynch's  officers,  said  that 
out  at  sea,  in  a  fair  sea-fight,  with  a  wind  to  manoeuvre 
and  enough  of  it  to  make  manoeuvring  necessary,*  he 
thought  that  two  heavy  United  States  or  English  frigates 
ought  to  be  able  to  give  a  good  account  of  the  whole 
Turkish  fleet.  This  was  said  in  no  braggadocio  spirit ; 
it  was  merely  a  conclusion  to  which  the  American  officer 
had  come  after  examining  the  ships,  the  composition  of 
the  crews,  their  habits,  and  notorious  want  of  seamanship. 
I  have  spoken  already  of  Turkish  ingratitude. 
After  they  had  applied  to  the  British  Government  for 
that  distinguished  officer,  after  Admiral  Sir  Baldwin 
Walker  had  toiled  in  the  fleet,  and  had  led  their  ships 
into  battle  on  the  coast  of  Syria,  after  he  had  done  all 
that  man  could  do  to  improve  both  Arsenal  and  fleet, 
they  put  him  on  the  shelf,  they  slighted  him,  and  they 
finally,  by  a  crowning  insult,  induced  him  to  send  in  his 
resignation.  The  pashas  would  not,  could  not  have 
him  in  the  Arsenal ;  he  stood  between  them  and  their 
nefarious  profits ;  as  a  British  officer  he  could  not  go 
shares  in  their  plunder,  but  was  always  ready  to  expose 
their  iniquity.     They  would  not  have  him  in  the  fleet, 

*  It  will  be  remembered  that  at  Kavarino  the  Turks  and  Egyptians 
were  all  moored  in  a  close  harbour,  with  the  protection  of  laud-batteries,  etc. 
They  did  not  move ;  they  were  merely  floating  batteries. 


348  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.        Chap.  XXIIL 

because  he  was  always  insisting  that  the  poor  men 
should  be  fairly  and  regularly  paid,  without  aggio  or 
any  of  those  deductions  which  are  constantly  exacted  by 
treasurers  and  serafis.  He  was  more  hated  by  the 
Armenians  than  by  the  Turkish  pashas,  and  when  these 
two  bodies  are  united  together  and  allies  in  hostility,  no 
honest  man  can  hope  to  stan4  against  them.  If  Sir 
Baldwin  had  known  these  things,  he  would  never  have 
gone  to  Constantinople ;  he  has  since  found  more  fitting 
service  and  an  honourable  promotion  under  his  own 
flag ;  but  this  does  not  affect  the  fact  that  in  his  person 
the  Queen  and  Government  of  Great  Britain  were 
insulted  and  outraged  as  well  as  himself  Their  con- 
duct was  no  better  to  Colonel  Williams  and  Lieutenant 
Dickson  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  who,  at  their  earnest 
request,  were  sent  out  to  act  as  instructors  and  to  put 
their  artillery  into  order.  They  received  these  two 
officers  with  an  ostentatious  parade  and  volleys  of 
stereotyped  compliments,  but  when  they  had  got  them 
they  never  gave  them  anything  to  do ;  they  left  them  in 
involuntary  and  irksome  idleness,  to  draw,  with  more 
or  less  regularity,  pretty  good  pay,  which  they  felt  they 
had  not  earned.  They  were  not  supple  enoij^h  to  be 
mingled  with  Turkish  pashas  and  lordly  and  most 
ignorant  Grand  Masters  of  Artillery ;  they  were  far  too 
honest  to  be  active  parts  of  a  system  where  all  was  dis- 
honesty. As  far  as  the  service  was  concerned,  they 
might  as  well  have  been  at  the  antipodes  or  in  the 
moon.  At  the  instance  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning, 
Colonel  Williams  was  included  in  a  commission  to  sur- 
vey and  settle  the  disputed  frontier  between  Turkey 
and  Persia ;  and  he  took  his  departure  for  Erzeroum  and 


Chaf.  XXm.  TUBKISH  INGRATITUDE.  349 


Lake  Van ;  Lieutenant  Dickson,  tired  of  an  idle,  pro- 
fitless life,  and  utterly  disgusted  with  the  governing 
Turks,  threw  up  Us  appointment,  and  came  home. 
The  conduct  was  the  same  towards  every  honourable 
man,  no  matter  what  his  country.  They  had  treated 
French  oflicers  quite  as  badly  as  English.  They  really 
seemed  to  entertain  a  settled  plan  for  humiliating  and 
insulting,  turn  and  turn  about,  all  the  nations  of 
Christendom.  Nothing  more  scurvy  than  their  beha- 
viour to  the  American  ship-builders,  who  had  rendered 
them  such  essential  services  and  who  had  constructed 
for  them  the  only  really  good  ships  they  have  upon  the 
waters.  Mr.  Eckford,  who  took  out  to  them  from  New 
York  a  most  beautiful  corvette,  attempted  to  organize 
their  Arsenal  and  shipyards ;  he  was  very  irregularly 
paid,  was  constantly  thwarted,  lost  his  health  and  spirits, 
and  soon  died  of  malaria  fever,  or — ^as  some  confidently 
asserted — of  poison.  Mr.  Khodes,  of  Long  Island,  who 
succeeded  him,  was  a  light-hearted  bustling  man,  iuU 
of  rough  energy,  and  he  had  the  luck  to  become  an 
especial  favourite  with  Sultan  Mahmoud,  who  at  this 
time  was  taking  great  interest  in  his  navy,  and  con- 
stantly coming  unceremoniously  and  unannounced  into 
the  Arsenal,  to  see  things  with  his  own  eyes  and  to 
put  direct  and  searching  questions  to  the  emphyia. 
Mahmoud,  as  I  have  said,  was  as  active  as  his  son  is 
inactive.  He  often  pounced  unexpectedly  upon  the 
American  while  hard  at  work  (for  he  had  to  work  him- 
self to  show  the  way  to  others),  and  pulling  him  by  the 
shirt-sleeves  he  would  trudge  with  him  over  the  dock- 
yard, or  go  afloat  with  him  to  some  ship  under  repair. 
Khodes,  who  soon  picked  up  a  good  deal  of  Turkish 


350  TURKEY  A:ND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXm. 

himself,  had  moreover  the  rare  good  fortune  to  find  an 
honest  drogoman  with  courage  enough  to  translate  faith- 
fully, to  any  great  man,  whatever  his  employer  said. 
Another  vast  advantage  was  that  he  had  free  access  to 
the  Sultan  nearly  at  all  times.  He  bullied  the  pashas 
as  they  had  never  been  bullied  before — and  bullying  is 
the  only  available  process  with  these  Turks.  Whenever 
he  caught  them  tripping  he  threatened  them  with 
exposure.  One  day  he  ordered  the  men  to  stop  work, 
left  the  Arsenal  in  a  towering  passion,  and  leaped  into 
his  caique.  They  asked  him  where  he  was  going.  ^^  I 
am  going  to  the  Palace,"  said  he,  *^  to  tell  the  Sultan 
that  you  are  all  thieves — aU  /'*  In  spite  of  Armenian 
seraffs  he  brought  down  more  than  one  great  man  with 
a  run.  In  a  dispute  about  accounts,  the  nazir,  or 
superintendent,  being  hard  pressed,  and  losing  his 
temper,  called  Rhodes  a  peza\)enk.  Not  satisfied  with 
calling  him  another,  and  something  worse,  the  Ame- 
rican citizen  broke  his  pipe-stick  over  the  head  of  the 
Mussulman  efiendi.  It  was  by  energy  like  this  that 
the  Long-Islander  was  enabled  to  complete  his  immense, 
truly  splendid  70-^n  frigate,  and  to  do  a  great  deal 
more  of  very  useful  work.  But  when  Sultan  Mahmoud 
died  he  lost  his  power  and  prestige ;  Abdul  Medjid  was 
then  a  mere  boy ;  a  new  set  of  pashas  came  into  office, 
and  did  as  they  liked:  Rhodes  presently  sent  in  his 
resignation,  which  was  eagerly  accepted.  His  brother- 
in-law,  Mr.  Reeves,  who  had  been  his  foreman,  then 
took  his  place,  but  only  to  be  scandalously  treated. 
For  three  whole  years  he  never  received  a  farthing  of 
pay!  With  an  unsettled  account  he  left  in  disgust. 
He  returned  to  Constantinople  while  we  were  there,  to 


Chap.  XXm.    MB.  CABB,  THE  AMEBICAX  MDOSTEB.        351 

press  for  payment  of  what  the  goyemment  owed  him* 
He  brought  with  him  the  model  of  a  cheap,  most  con- 
venient,  excellent  steam  ferry-boat,  which  might  be 
most  useMly  employed  in  carrying  the  people  who  are 
constantly  passii^  and  repassing  between  Constantinople 
and  the  Asiatic  suburb  of  Scutari.  He  did  not  seem  to 
me  to  have  enough  cunning,  daring,  and  sang  froid  to 
deal  with  the  Turks.  They  were  keeping  him  in  play, 
trotting  him  from  pasha  to  pasha,  and  tormenting  him 
sadly.  They  told  him  that  the  model  was  tchiok  guizel ; 
but  when  he  spoke  of  constructing  the  steam  ferry-boat 
they  put  him  off  with  baccalums.  When  we  left  he  had 
not  recovered  the  money  due  to  him,  but  his  Minister 
and  our  good  friend  Mr.  Garr  was  certainly  the  man  to 
obtain  payment  for  him,  as  he  used  a  bold  logic  which 
the  Turks  could  never  resist  in  the  long  run.  This 
representative  of  the  United  States  most  amscientiously 
believed  that  the  prime  business  of  a  diplomatist  was  to 
see  justice  done  to  his  fellow-countrymen,  and  whenever 
called  upon  he  acted  up  to  this  belief,  never  admitting 
that  private  interests  are  to  be  sacrificed  or  to  give 
way  for  indefinite  periods  of  time  to  public  or  state 
interests.  This  last  principle  has  been  but  too  often 
admitted  by  the  very  best  of  our  English  diplomatists. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  an  error  everywhere,  and 
in  Turkey  an  enormous  one,  as  here,  without  the  inters 
ference  of  his  Ambassador,  no  Englishman  has  a  chance 
of  obtaining  justice  where  the  government  or  its 
Armenian  agents  are  concerned  And  what  are  public 
or  political  interests  but  an  aggregate  of  private  inte- 
rests ?  If  the  Turks  are  unjust  towards  the  one,  are 
they  likely  to  deal  honourably  mth  the  other  ?     If  you 


352  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIH. 

undertake  their  political  tutorage,  if  you  would  lead 
them  on  in  the  paths  of  reform,  ought  you  not  on  every 
occasion  to  instil  into  their  minds  that  honesty  is  the 
best  policy,  that  the  scrupulous  discharge  of  private  con- 
tracts and  obligations  will  secure  faith  and  confidence  in 
their  public  obligations  ?  Because  you  wish  to  carry  out 
some  scheme  which  you  believe  will  be  advantageous  to 
the  Turks,  are  you,  for  the  sake  of  keeping  them  in 
good  humour  and  overcoming  their  obstinacy  and  stur 
pidity,  to  sacrifice,  or  to  delay  (until  the  hearts  of  the 
claimants  become  sick),  the  claims  of  ill-used  English- 
men ?  This  may  be  very  generous  to  the  Turks,  but  it 
is  a  generosity  all  at  the  cost  of  the  English.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  the  American  ship-builder  got  his  money 
long  ago,  nor  have  I  any  doubt  that  if  he  were  a  British 
subject  he  would  be  waiting  for  it  still. 

I  could  multiply  instances  of  Turkish  ingratitude, 
but  I  will  here  relate  only  one  more.  Mr.  Frederick 
Taylor,  the  able  engineer  and  architect,  the  man  of 
varied,  useful  acquirements  and  many  excellent  quali- 
ties, had  been  fifteen  years  in  the  country  and  had 
learned  the  Turkish  language.  He  had  erected  for 
Government  the  fine  English  machinery  at  Tophana 
for  the  boring  and  finishing  of  cannon ;  he  had  set  the 
machinery  at  work,  had  taught  a  number  of  Turks  how 
to  manage  it,  and  had  otherwise  made  himself  exceed- 
ingly usefiil  to  the  Ordnance  department.  Some  time 
after  the  completion  of  the  works  at  Tophana,  the 
Turkish  government,  having  resolved  to  establish  a 
proper  Mint,  like  that  of  England,  instead  of  the  slow, 
clumsy,  miserable  manufactory  of  coins  they  had 
hitherto  used^  sent  Mr.  Taylor  to  London  to  super- 


1 


Chap.  XXm.        MR.  R  TAYLOR  AND  THE  MINT.  353 

intend  the  machinery  there  making,  and  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  all  the  details  of  coining.     He  had,  in 
fact^  to  learn  a  new  art  and  mystery.     On  the  applica- 
tion of  Reschid  Pasha  our  Government  very  liberally 
threw  the  model  Mint  on  Tower.  Hill  open  to  him. 
Sir  Jasper  Atkinson,  the  Provost  of  the  Moneyers,  the 
son  of  a  provost,  the  man  whose  whole  life  has  been 
passed  in  this  important  establishment,  and  whose  know- 
ledge in  this  branch  is  complete  and  perhaps  unique, 
afforded   Mr.  Taylor  every  facility,  and  imparted  to 
him  every  needful  instruction,  for  he  liked  his  mission 
or  iis  object  (the  setting  up  of  a  beautiful  Mint  in  Con- 
stantinople) and  he  could  not  but  like  the  man.     After 
some  eighteen  months  the  choice  English  machinery 
and  Mr.  Taylor's  instruction  were  completed.     He  re- 
turned to  Turkey,  he  went  diligently  to  work,  he  pre- 
pared the  locality,  he  set  up  the  machinery  in  most 
beautiful  order,  and   he  set   it  to  work.     This  new 
Turkish  Mint,  or  English  Mint  in  Turkey,  is  the  one 
perfect  thing  they   have.     Nearly  every  other   new 
thing  is  a  whim-wham  or  a  wretched  failure ;  this  alone 
challenges  an  unqualified  admiration.    It  stands  within 
the  second  court  of  the  Serraglio,  and  is  the  only  thing 
really  worth  looking  at  within  those  vast  and  now 
nearly  desolate  indosures.     I  doubt  whether  out  of 
London  and  out  of  Paris  (since  the  French  Mint  has 
been  improved  with  the  aid  and  personal  superintend- 
ence of  Sir  Jasper  Atkinson)  there  is   such  another 
Mint  in  the  world.     During  all  these  useful  labours 
they  paid  this  valuable  man  a  very  inadequate  salary — 
his  emoluments  were  less  than  a  third  of  those  obtained 
by  the  blundering  old  Englishman  at  Macri-keui,  who 

VOL.  u.  2  a 


S54  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXHI. 

had  done  nothing  right  or  welL  At  the  coinage  of  the 
first  new  money,  one  of  those  gold  and  diamond  snaff- 
boxes  which  the  Sultan  is  eternally  giving,  was  given  to 
him ;  but  very  shordy  after  they  turned  him  out  of  the 
Mint,  and  left  him  without  any  employment,  appoint- 
ment, or  pay  whatsoever.*  In  this  state  he  remained 
nearly  eighteen  months.  An  iron^undry  being  much 
wanted  in  Galata  for  foreign  steamers  and  for  numerous 
other  objects,  Mr.  Taylor  endeavoured  to  establish  one. 
The  monopolizing  Armenians  pretended  that  he  had 
no  right  so  to  do ;  they  threw  every  possible  obstacle 
in  his  way,  and  as  they  were  either  the  owners  or  the 
creditors  and  mortgagees  of  the  owners  of  nearly  all 
the  houses  and  buildings,  they  shut  him  out  from  all 
the  places  best  adapted  for  such  an  establishment  The 
wandering  Glee  Club  did  not  wander  half  so  long  in 
search  of  a  temple  to  the  praise  of  glorious  Apollo  as 
Taylor  wandered  in  search  of  a  place  for  his  foundry. 
He  got  one  at  last,  but  it  was  inconvenient  and  sadly 
cribbed  and  confined.  He,  however,  went  to  work, 
and  was  teaching  some  people  of  the  country  to  be 
very  good  casters  and  iron-founders.  It  is  by  indi- 
vidual enterprise  like  this  that  the  country  might  reaUy 
be  improved,  but  individual  enterprise  is  everywhere 
discouraged,  and,  in  the  end,  almost  invariably  crushed. 
The  ^^  hmsefT  faire^  the  **liveandlet  live,**  are  prin- 
ciples odious,  heretical,  damnable,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Armenians,  who  must  do  everything  themselves  or 
have   it  done  under    their    immediate    and  absolute 

*  Another  diamond  sunff-box  ^vas  sent  to  Sir  Jasper  Atkinson.  If  I 
know  Sir  Jasper's  disposition,  I  should  say  that  he  would  have  preferred, 
ten  •times  over,  the  proper  treatment  of  Mr.  Taylor  to  this  hauble. 


Ghaf,  XXra.    JEALOUSY  OP  THE  ARMENIANS.  355 

eoatrol.  Several  months  before  our  departure  some  of 
the  pashas  in  die  Ordnance  department  either  felt 
ashamed  at  the  treatment  which  Mr.  Taylor  had  re« 
eeived,  or  fdt  /assured  tibat  be  was  the  best  man  to  do 
some  work  they  waoited  done ;  and  they  engaged  him 
to  construct  a  large  building  at  Tophana  for  the  making 
and  puttii^  together  of  gun-carriages.  Although  it 
was  wwking  only  on  copper  and  base  alloys  (gold  and 
wirer  having  become  so  scarce),  we  saw  the  beautiful 
Mint  machinery  at  work  under  the  care  of  three  sober, 
steady*  and  very  intelligent  English  engineers  who  had 
been  tmixied  by  Mr.  Taylor.  These  three  useful  men 
would  hav«  been  sent  adrift  long  ago  if  the  Dook 
O^ous  cou]d  hav^  found  Armenians  or  Turks  at  all 
capable  of  performing  their  duties.  Without  being 
assured  as  to  capability,  the  Armenians  will  probably 
be  making  such  a  change  before  long — and  then,  every- 
thing will  go  to  rack  and  ruin.  In  some  additions 
made  to  the  establishment  since  Mr.  Taylor  left  it, 
Umider  had  be^  accumulated  upon  blunder,  and 
money  and  labour  had  been  thrown  away  as  if  they 
were  things  of  no  value  at  Constantinople.  The  Eng- 
lish working  engineers  were  not  men  of  sufficient  autho- 
rily  to  be  listened  to  by  liie  arrogant  Armenians,  who 
have  a  school  of  engineering  quite  peculiar  to  them- 
selves, and  whose  conceit  is  not  to  be  beaten  out  of 
them  by  any  amount  of  £ulure.  Their  formula  is,  ^^  we 
can  do  the  work  better  and  cheaper  ourselves.**  This 
is  what  they  are  incessantly  repeating  to  the  Turks  so 
80(m  as  they  fancy  they  have  got  a  clear  insight  into  the 
processes  of  any  of  the  Franks  in  the  employment  of 
die  Forte. 

2a2 


■  ■!■■»  imm^^msm^ 


■■*" 


356  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXHI. 

The  guns  used  on  board  the  fleet  are  now  all  iron 
guns.  The  old  brass  ordnance  is  lying  like  useless 
rubbish  in  the  Arsenal.  We  there  saw  the  brass  guns 
(many  of  them  very  handsome)  lying  in  the  midst  of 
dirt^  pile  upon  pile,  and  pile  beyond  pile.  Merely  as 
metal  the  value  of  them  must  have  been  great. 

They  kept  making  at  Tophana,  of  metal  brought 
from  their  own  ill-worked  mines  or  purchased  from 
foreign  merchants,  a  great  many  brass  guns  for  the  use 
of  the  army ;  wd  they  were  also  casting  there,  clumsily 
and  at  an  enormous  expense,  a  few  heavy  iron  ship- 
guns  under  the  superintendence  of  a  certain  Halil 
Pasha,  who  had  passed  seven  years  in  England  and  had 
been  allowed  to  learn  the  art  at  Woolwich.  They 
might  have  had  iron  guns  from  England  at  one-third 
pf  the  expense ;  but  now  all  things  are  to  be  made  at 
home,  cost  what  they  may ;  Turkey  must  manufacture 
for  herself,  must  limit  as  far  as  possible  her  trade  with 
foreign  nations  to  the  sale  of  her  surplus  produce; 
Turkey  is  every  day  practically  entering  a  protest 
i^ainst  the  doctrines  of  Free  Trade,  and  narrowing  her 
market  for  foreign  manufactures.  The  country  least 
fitted  for  it  in  the  world  is  following  the  universal  rule 
that  people  ought  to  manufacture  at  home  that  which 
they  formerly  bought  from  Great  Britain.  This  rule 
is  made  the  more  absolute  in  proportion  as  England 
becomes  more  and  more  Cobdenized.  The  "  cooked  ** 
returns  of  our  Board  of  Trade  and  all  that  display  of 
ciphered  columns  and  statistics,  are  illusory:  the  sale 
of  our  manufactures  within  the  proper  Ottoman  domi« 
nions  has  declined,  is  declining,  and  must  continue  to 
decline  (were  there  no  other  reason  than  the  impove- 


i**»'*^ip»»«i»Bi*i»»i«^»w»*p««r"^^< 


Chap.  XXIH.  PRISONS.  357 

rishment  of  the  country) ;  a  good  part  of  our  trade 
with  Turkey  is  merely  a  transit  trade ;  a  very  consi- 
derable portion  of  the  value  of  our  exports  has  recently 
lain  in  machinery,  intended  to  make,  under  the  in- 
struction of  English  workmen,  at  Constantinople,  Nico- 
media,  &c.,  the  articles  which  were  formerly  made  for 
this  market  in  England.  The  experiment  is  failing, 
ridiculously  failing,  but  it  is  important  as  showing  the 
universal  tendency  and  the  oneness  of  intention.  If 
the  Manchester  philoso]>hy  is  met  in  the  teel^  by 
Turkey^  in  what  country  between  the  poled  can  it  hope 
to  be  welcomed  or  to  have  a  quiet  reign  ? 

Although  we  frequently  passed  the  dismal  gate  of 
the  Bagnio,  we  did  not  enter  that  prison :  there  was  an 
evident  reluctance  to  admit  strangers  to  such  establish-, 
ments,  and  the  cholera  and  fevers  raging  within  were 
ra&er  repressive  of  curiosity.  I  was  told  that  it  was 
in  the  same  frightful  state  in  which  I  had  seen  it  in 
1828,  and  I  can  very  well  believe  the  statement  It 
seemed  that  the  hand  of  Beform  had  not  touched  these 
abodes  of  vice  and  woe,  and  (not  very  unfrequently) 
of  innocence  and  mere  misfortune.  All  the  prisons 
that  we  saw  in  Europe  or  in  Asia  were  frightful,  pesti- 
ferous dens.  The  prison  at  Tophana  has  been  already 
alluded  to.  The  care  taken  to  exclude  me  from  a  sight 
of  the  great  prison  of  Constantinople  (the  Seraskier's), 
and  tlie  ill  humour  shown  at  my  application,  inclined 
''me  to  believe  die  worst  that  was  said  aboiit  it.  A 
French  traveller  (M.  Blanqui,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  at  Paris),  despatched  on  a  very  strange  mis- 
sion by  M.  Guizot,  was  requested  by  M.  Duchatel, 
Minister  of  the  Interior  of  France^  to  study  the  ^^  eco- 


358  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIH. 

nomical  and  disciplinary  regimen  of  the  Turkish  pri* 
sons,"  and  to  report  thereon,  as  his  (M.  Duchatel's) 
administration  did  not  possess  any  document  on  the 
prisons  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  as  a  report  firom 
"wn  homme  Sdairi^  grave  et  impartial"'  would  have 
great  value  in  his  eyes.*  I  gather  from  M.  Blanqui 
himself  (who  publishes  in  his  book  these  sounding 
ministerial  compliments)  that  he  was  not  very  dclaire, 
that  he  was  neither  grave  nor  impartial^  but  a  hasty, 
prejudiced,  vapouring  man;  and  I  derive  from  his 
prison-report  in  particular  (a  tissue  of  words  and  fine 
phrases)  that  he  gave  himself  hardly  any  trouble  in 
examining  the  prisons^ 

M.  Blanqui,  however,  bsljb  that  he  visited  the  Seras- 
kier  prison,  that  he  penetrated  jusqu^au  fond  de  cet 
antre^  and  that  the  sight  filled  him  with  horror.  He 
adds  that  he  was  the  only  foreigner  that  had  been 
allowed  to  make  that  perilous  examination,  meme 
depuis  Us  riformes  de  Mahmoud.  His  description,  in 
this  particular,  agrees  pretty  closely  with  the  accounts 
I  received  from  some  Franks  of  Fera  who  had  seen 
the  interior  of  the  famous  prison  more  than  once.  M. 
Blanqui  says  that  ^^  it  is  the  most  perfect  image  of  all 
Turkish  prisons ;"  that  it  consists  of  five  or  six  courts 
or  inclosures^  irregular  and  shockingly  filthy,  round 
which  are  placed  dark,  dirty,  pestilential  chambers, 
without  beds,  without  mats,  and  even  without  straw  for 
the  prisoners  to  lie  upon.  The  criminals  guilty  of 
capital  crimes  are  chained  to  the  walls  of  their  dungeon 
with  heavy  iron  chains.     All  the  others,  whether  con- 

*  This  M.  Blanqui  is  not  M.  Blanqui  the  Socialist  and  Hcd  ro|mblican, 
but  a  brother  or  cousin  of  that  turbulent  personage. 


Chap.  XXIH.  M.  BLANQUITS  BBPORT,  359 

denmed  or  only  waiting  to  be  tried,  children  and  old 
men  mixed,  are  lodged  in  the  different  courts,  and  sleep 
pell-mell  on  the  ground.  There  is  no  separation  of 
criminals  and  debtors ;  they  are  all  huddled  together 
and  all  as  it  were  abandoned  to  themselyes,  the  weak 
to  the  discretion  of  the  strong,  the  youthful  to  the 
discretion  of  the  adult  Dreading  infection  and  the 
horrible  vernun,  the  gaolers  rarely  entered  the  interior 
courts.  We  afterwards  saw  one  exception,  but  every 
prison  we  had  hitherto  seen  did  certainly  correspond 
very  closely  with  this  description  by  M.  Blanqui.  He 
says  that  as  for  a  disciplinary  or  an  economic  system, 
there  is  none.  I  should  say  that  there  is  a  system 
generally  prevailing^  and  that  it  is  this — ^for  discipline 
the  prisoners  are  beaten,  ill  treated,  and  tormented 
until  they  bribe  their  gaolers,  and  for  the  economical 
part  they  are  left  to  live  on  the  charity  of  their  relatives 
and  friends  if  Uiey  have  any,  and  to  starve  upon  a 
prison  allowance  of  bad  bread  and  horse-beans  if  they 
have  none.  No  firing  is  allowed,  and  this  in  the  winter 
season  at  Constantinople  is  a  terribly  cruel  privation. 
No  prison  dresses  are  distributed,  no  night  covering  is 
provided ;  the  prisoners  wear  the  dresses  in  which  they 
were  arrested,  and  they  try  to  keep  themselves  warm 
at  night  on  the  cold  damp  ground  by  lying  together  in 
heaps.  In  Constantinople  there  are  two  or  three  sepa- 
rate prisons  for  females,  and  these  were  said  to  be  in  no 
degree  better  than  the  rest  With  the  neatness  of  a 
definition  M.  Blanqui  says,  *^  A  Turkish  prison  is  an 
inclosure  wherein  Authority  shuts  up  all  those  who  &11 
under  its  hand  in  the  days  of  its  wrath,  as  well  as  in 
the  days  of  its  justice/'    But  there  is  a  third  agent  far 


360  TUBKET  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXm. 

more  active  than  either  wrath  or  jurtiee,  an  agent  that 
does  not  act  like  them  by  fitB  and  starts^  bat  is  always 
in  action.  For  one  man  that  is  sent  to  these  horrible 
dongeons  in  anger  or  out  of  a  regard  for  the  law,  at 
least  three  men  are  committed  for  no  other  object  than 
that  of  extorting  money  from  them.  This  was  the  case 
at  Brusa,  at  Smyrna,  and  in  every  town  we  visited. 
At  Ck>n8tantinople  there  was  a  constant  ebb  and  flow  of 
the  tide  at  the  prison  gates,  men  coming  out  who  had 
purchased  their  liberty,  and  men  going  in  who  would 
purchase  theirs  in  a  few  days  to  escape  the  torments  of 
the  place,  and  the  imminent  risk  of  disease  and  death. 
These  people  w^e  generally  arrested  on  the  most  frivo- 
lous pretences,  the  police  taking  especial  care  to  seize 
only  such  as  were  known  to  have  money  or  friends. 
Where  &]se  witnesses  are  to  be  hired  in  every  part  of 
the  town — men  ready  to  swear,  for  the  sake  of  a  few 
piastres,  whatever  they  may  be  told  to  swear,  evidence, 
if  called  for,  is  never  wanting ;  and  where  the  oath  of 
a  Christian  cannot  be  accepted  against  that  of  a  Mus- 
sulman, the  Christian  Bayahs  have  no  chance  of  escape 
except  in  paying  money. 

The  standing  dissensions  between  the  Greeks  and 
the  Armenians  afford  opportunities  which  are  not  ofiten 
neglected.  One  morning,  at  the  end  of  March,  our 
Ferote  laundress  came  to  us  in  sore  trouble.  The 
other  day  her  husband,  a  Greek,  had  a  violent  alterca- 
tion with  an  Armenian,  his  next  door  neighbour,  and  a 
Bayah  like  himself  The  Greek  tore  the  Armenian's 
cloak.  The  Armenian  ran  away  and  called  up  the 
Turkish  police ;  the  cavasses,  More  Turco^  cudgelled 
the  Greek  unmercifully,  called  his  wife  all  manner  of 


:  Chap.  XXHI.    ADVANTAGE  OP  BEING  **  PROTECTED."      361 

i:  ill  names,  and  then  whisked  him  down  to  the  dreaded 

prison  in  the  Arsenal,  without  carrying  him  before  any 
judge  or  magistrate,  or  legal  authority  whateoever.  In 
prison  the  milucky  Greek  was  still  lying,  and  Tonco, 
who  had  much  experience  in  these  matters,  thought  it 
would  cost  his  wife  from  500  to  1000  piastres  to  get 
him  out, — "  Because,"  said  our  host,  "  the  cavasses 
know  that  the  laundress  luis  grushes,  and  that  the  house 
she  lives  in  is  her  own  property.  If  she  had  been 
poor,  they  would  only  have  beaten  her  husband  I  *'  The 
poor  woman  was  almost  in  despair,  for  cholera  was  then 
in  the  prison,  and  malignant  fevers  and  other  infections 
were  never  out  of  it.  "  You  see,"  said  Tonco,  knock- 
ing out  the  ashes  of  his  last  pipe  and  preparing  to  put 
her  in  the  way  to  offer  money  in  the  proper  quarter, 
"  you  see  what  a  blessed  thing  it  is  to  have  Frank  pro- 
tection, and  not  to  be  a  Bayah  subject  of  the  Sultan  I 
If  you  were  protected  this  would  not  have  happened. 
Your  husband  would  not  have  been  beaten;  and  if 
they  had  carried  him  to  prison,  your  consul  would  soon 
have  got  him  out  again  without  expense.  You  really 
ought  to  get  protection.  You  cannot  hope  to  make 
money  and  keep  it  without  foreign  protection.  If  you 
cannot  be  Bussian,  or  French,  or  English,  why  not  try 
and  be  Spanish  or  Swedish,  or  Sardinian  or  Nea- 
politan, or  Tuscan  or  Boman,  or  Danish!  Danish 
protection  is  very  good,  why  not  try  and  get  that? 
You  have  money,  you  do  washing  for  the  Danish  Le- 
gation, why  not  be  a  Dane  ?  " 


mtmmmmtmmmmmm^-mm^Kmtmimmmmmmm'^^mtm 


862  '  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 


CHAPTEE  XXIV. 

English  Hospital  at  Fera,  and  its  disgraeefnl  Condition  —  Sufferings  and 
Mortality  of  English  Seamen  —  Cold  neglect  of  the  Consulate  — 
Admirable  Conduct  of  the  American  Missionaries  towards  the  English 
Sailors  —  Messrs.  Dwight^  Everett,  and  Goodell  —  The  English  Hos- 
pital and  a  Fire  —  Melancholy  Death  of  an  English  Seaman  —  Bu*- 
simony  of  our  Qoyemment  -^  Plan  for  improving  the  English  Hospital 
—  The  Palace  building  for  the  British  Ambassador  —  Enormous  Ex- 
penses —  Boguery  and  Plunder  —  The  Woods  and  Forests  Architect. 

I  HAVE  spoken  with  perfect  fairness  and  truth  of  the 
Turkish  hospitals  in  Constantinople,  bestowing  warm 
praise  where  praise  was  due.  I  regret  having  now  to 
declare  that,  in  many  respects,  the  worst  hospital  we 
saw  in  the  country  was  the  English  Ho^ital  at  Fera. 
We  went  over  it  on  the  25th  of  March  with  Mr. 
Everett,  one  of  the  American  missionaries,  who  (doing 
what  no  Englishman  had  done)  had  devoted  much  of 
his  time  to  comforting  the  poor  sick  sailors,  and  in 
burying  them  like  ChriBtian  men  when  Aey  were  dead. 
Twice  I  repeated  my  visit,  and  I  took  careful  notes  of 
the  observations  I  made  and  of  the  information  I 
received  from  persons  most  competent  to  give  it  I 
would  most  earnestly  call  the  attention  of  my  country- 
men and  Government  to  these  notes,  which  I  shall  now 
transcribe  with  little  addition  or  alteration : — 

^^  The  English  hospital  at  Pera  is  a  miserable,  dingy, 
tumble-down,  wooden  house  in  the  midst  of  wooden 
houses  which  may  at  any  moment  take  fire.  It  stands 
in  a  narrow,  filthy,  damp  lane,  close  under  the  high 


>MaMi^BH»^Biv^B«WiiBPB^^^i^H*Mi2^*;MaMM*^to^«-a«^M»>  -^Sdfc 


Goat.  XXIY.      SNOUSB  HOSPITAL  AT  FSEA.  3^3 

garden-wiUs  of  the  EngliA  palace.  Wben  the  eosdy 
ambaaBadorial  rcsidoice  shall  be  finidied  and  occupied 
(as  I  suppose  it  inll  be  some  day),  die  inmatPS  firom 
their  windows  will  hare  under  dieir  eyes  this  unheaMiy 
abode  for  the  skk^  this  odious  omtrsst  between  extra* 
vagant  expenditure  and  neglect  and  parsimoay — tiiia 
disgrace  to  our  national  character*  I  would  as  soon 
live  in  the  Pasha  of  Brusa's  konack,  widi  its  horrible 
prison  facing  raej  as  in  this  ambassadorial  palace  with 
such  an  English  hospital  close  under  my  windows. 
Assuredly,  Sir  Stratford  Canning  is  not  the  man  that 
will  long  bear  the  di^racefol  contrast 

'*  There  are  no  proper  wards,  or  means  of  making 
them  in  the  confined  space.  The  whole  hospital  is  com- 
prised in  the  first  floor  of  a  common  Fera  dwelling- 
house.  The  doctor  in  attendance  lives  on  the  floor 
above,  and  has  as  much  room  as  all  the  sick  put  to- 
gether. The  unhappy  sufierers,  whatever  may  be  their 
diseases,  are  all  huddled  together  pele-mele,  in  two 
small,  low-roofed  rooms  and  one  rickety  saloon,  which 
is  cold  as  an  ice-house  in  winter,  and  hot  as  an  oven 
in  summer.  Last  autumn  as  many  as  sixty-fiTe  victims 
were  crammed  into  these  spaces,  which  would  not  pro« 
perly  accommodate  ten  patients  I  Then,  they  had  no 
adequate  changes  of  bed-linen,  etc. ;  no  mosquito  ciuy 
tains  to  defend  the  sick  from  the  intolerable  persecution 
of  the  insects.  The  building  was  swarming  with  bugs, 
fleas,  and  other  vermin.  There  were  no  means  of 
properly  ventilating  the  apartments.  One  hot  day 
when  Mr.  Everett  went  to  attend  a  dying  English 
sailor,  he  found  the  saloon  almost  as  stifling  as  a  Black- 
hole  of  Calcutta,  with  stenches  which  nearly  knocked 


364  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.         Chap.  XXIV. 

him  down.  All  the  windows  were  closed :  at  the  top 
of  the  room  they  could  not  be  opened,  because  just 
under  them  was  a  row  of  beds  occupied  by  men  dan- 
gerously sick ;  and  there  was  the  same  obstruction  and 
difficulty  at  the  other  end  of  the  room.  The  place 
seemed  fitted  to  kill  every  man  that  came  into  it  to  be 
cured.  Mr.  Everett  rushed  out  of  the  place  to  save 
himself  from  fainting ;  and  then,  by  getting  a  window 
opened,  he  relieved  and  revived  some  of  the  panting 
patients.  Two  other  American  missionaries,  Mr. 
Goodell  and  Mr.  Dwight,  who  shared  in  the  labours 
and  perils  of  Mr.  Everett,  described  to  us  scenes  that 
were  still  worse,  together  with  a  general  state  of 
hospital  management  and  administration  that  would 
scarcely  be  credible  from  less  truthful  and  religious  men. 
These  accounts  were  confirmed  by  three  or  four  of  the 
English  residents  who  had  had  courage  enough  to  enter 
into  that  foul  den  during  the  hot  and  sickly  season. 

"  Now,  in  this  cold,  damp  weather,  they  have  no 
proper  fires.  An  old  crazy  Dutch  stove  is  out  of  order, 
and  smokes  so  that  it  cannot  be  used.  To  keep  up 
some  little  warmth  they  have  recourse  to  Turkish 
mangalsj  burning  charcoal,  which  is  not  always  freed 
entirely  from  its  noxious  gases  before  being  introduced 
into  the  chambers  of  the  sick.  We  breathe  a  fetid 
poisonous  atmosphere  as  we  move  from  one  sick-bed  to 
another ;  all  the  patients  (now  not  above  a  dozen)  com- 
plain of  intense  headaches.  The  rooms  are  ruinous  as 
well  as  filthy;  the  plaster  is  falling  from  the  wal]% 
leaving  holes  which  will  soon  be  filled  with  bugs ;  the 
yellow-wash  is  stained  and  foul,  and  wants  renewing. 
No  money  can  be  got  to  repair  the  place,  to  render  this 


Chap.  XXIY.      ENGLISH  HOSPITAL  AT  PKRA.  365 


antrum  safe  and  salubrioas.  And  yet,  in  glaring  evi- 
dence— almost  in  contact — ^towers  that  massy,  big,  ugly, 
stone  palace  where  the  '  Woods  and  Forests  *  architect, 
Mr.  Smith,  has  been  spending  for  years  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  English  public  money,  to  produce 
in  the  end  as  great  a  du^;nice  to  our  taste  as  this  hos* 
pital  is  to  our  morality ! 

*'  The  hospital-keeper  is  not  an  Englishman,  but  a 
vagabond  Maltese,  who  takes  a  small  salary  and  robs  to 
make  up  an  income,  who  is  constantly  drunk,  and  who 
is  in  the  habit  of  stealing  the  sick  sailors'  clothes,  bed* 
ding,  etc,  to  convert  them  into  rum  and  raki.     Only 

tihe  other  night  Mrs.  E saw  this  Maltese  worthy 

dead  drunk  in  the  lane  just  in  front  of  the  hospital  door. 
His  evil  reputation  is  universally  known;  but  he  is 
cheap;  a  respectable  Englishman  could  not  be  pro* 
cured  at  so  low  a  salary,  and  thus  he  is  left  in  his 
place.  Poor  widows  in  England  have  had  to  write 
and  write  again  for  effects  known  to  be  in  their  hus- 
bands' possession  when  they  entered  this  den  of  foulness 
and  iniquity,  but  of  which  no  trace  is  now  to  be  found 
<— -of  which  no  account  can  be  given  by  our  highly  paid, 
inefficient,  negligent  consulate.  No  doubt  such  pro- 
perty is  long  ago  gone  down  the  throats  of  the  Maltese 
and  his  drinking  companions  in  the  shape  of  wine  and 
ardent  spirits. 

^^  That  more  than  half-mad  and  thoroughly  unprin- 
cipled Irishman,  Dr. ^  got  turned  out  of  the  hos- 
pital, and  (for  a  short  season,  for  the  virtuous  indigna- 
tion of  Fera  never  lasts  long)  out  of  aU  European 
practice,  last  September ;  but  his  expulsion  arose  out  of 
a  disgraceful  private  quarrel,  and  not,  as  it  ought  to 


366  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 

have  done,  out  of  his  shamefiil  neglect  and  n[ial-admi- 
nistration  here*  During  his  regime  records  were  &om^ 
times  kept  of  <^e  entrances  and  sorties  of  the  sick ;  but 
this  was  all;  no  note  was  taken  of  the  nature  of  th^ 
diseases,  or  of  the  treatmenty  or  of  the  effects  of  those 
who  died  in  hospital^  or  of  any  thing  else.  This  medical 
attendant  was  hardly  ever  in  attendance.  When  <lie 
Danube  was  sending  down  the  £nglish  sailors  with  its 
dreadful  fevers  upon  them,  when  the  hospital  was  full, 
when  most  of  the  cases  were  critical,  this  man  was 
away,  and  at  times  for  days  together,  at  the  Princes' 
Islands,  or  San  Stefiino,  or  Therapia,  taking  his  plea- 
sure ;  and  even  when  in  Pera  his  time  was  devoted  not 
to  the  poor  seamen  in  the  hospital,  but  to  patients  who 
could  pay  him  good  fees.  He,  too,  was  cheap — ^and 
cheapness  is  the  order  of  the  day.  There  was  this 
excuse  for  him — ^he  could  not  have  lived  upon  his 
hospital  salary. 

^<  I  regret  the  being  obliged  to  speak  otherwise  than 
favourably  of  a  countryman  and  a  very  old  acquaintance, 
but  the  truth  cannot  otherwise  be  told.  Dr.  Macguffok, 
who  has  been  some  thirty  years  in  Turkey,  receives 
300Z.  per  annum  as  physician  to  our  Legation.  The 
principal,  and  indeed  almost  the  sole  work  attached  to 
this  office  should  seem  to  be  the  proper  care  of  the 
English  hospital.  There  is  no  want  of  European  physi- 
-cians,  at  least  as  eminent  as  himself:  the  attendance  of 
these  physicians  is  to  be  obtained  at  any  time  by  those 
who  can  afford  to  pay  for  it.  The  resident  Ambassador 
and  the  rest  of  the  L^ation  very  commonly  consult 
these  physicians ;  the  poor  sailors,  who  cannot  pay  fees, 
must  depend  upon  the  medical  advice  of  the  hoi^tal, 


Chap.  XXIV.       ENGLISH  HOSPITAL  AT  PERA.  367 

and  the  best  of  this  advice  ought  always  to  be  within 
llieir  reach.    The  charge  of  the  ^  British  Hospital  at 

Constantinople '  is  expressly  set  down  as  Dr.  M 's 

first  duty  in  his  contract  with  those  who  first  engaged 
and  paid  him.  This  was  the  old  and  good  rule  esta- 
blished by  the  now  suppressed  Levant  Company,  which 
formerly  paid  our  legations  and  consulates,  and  which 
managed  many  matters  in  the  Levant  much  better  and 
with  more  generosity  and  humanity  than  they  are  now 
managed  by  Government  The  half-dozen  gentlem^i 
of  our  legation  were  all  in  very  good  health,  when  sixty- 
five  sick  sailors  were  lying  almost  wholly  neglected  in 
our  hospital ;  the  occasional  sick-headaches  and  juvenile 
indiscretions  of  the  attaches  could  not  have  occupied 

mudhi  of  Dr.  M 's  time,  particularly  as  they  were 

in  the  habit  of  consulting  Dr.  Z and  other  medical 

men ;   but  Dr.  M found  profitable  employment, 

from  morning  till  night,  in  visiting  rich  Armenian  and 
Turkish  patients ;  and  he  delegated  his  hospital  duty  to 
another,  paying  him  a  miserable  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  a  year  to  do  all  the  work.  Perhaps,  once  in  a 
week  or  once  in  a  fortnight  he  pays  a  flying  visit  to  the 
hospital.  Last  August  he  told  me  that  the  hospital 
was  rapidly  improving  under  the  management  of  that 
wild  Irishman,  a  man  without  professional  skill,  without 
humanity,  without  a  conscience.  And  while  British 
subjects  are  lefi;  to  languish  in  a  vile  den,  and  to  have 
their  lives  sported  with  by  ignorance,  incapacity,  or 
downright  rascality,  what  enormotis  sums  are  paid  every 
year  to  Ambassador,  Secretary  of  Legation,  Oriental 
secretary,  first  attach^,  second  attache,  third  attach^, 
fourth  attache,  consul-general,  vice-consul,  and  drogo- 


«**npi*iaww" 


368  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 

mans,  couriers,  cavasses,  and  hangers  on  without  end?* 
And  what  are  these  men  paid  for,  but  to  promote  British 
interests,  to  defend  and  protect  British  subjects,  who,  in 
a  semi-barbarous  country  like  this,  and  in  a  moral 
atmosphere  which  seems  to  have  the  effect  of  rapidly 
denationalizing  the  British  character  (taking  from  it 
its  impatience  of  injustice  and  oppression,  its  lively 
sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  others),  an  extraor- 
dinary degree  of  that  defence  and  support  is  rendered 
necessary ! 

^^  How  Englishmen,  with  the  knowledge  of  the  state 
of  this  English  hospital  (and  the  most  careless  cannot  be 
ignorant  of  it),  can  take  and  enjoy  their  thousands,  their 
six  hundreds,  and  their  three  hundreds  a  year,  is  to 
me  matter  of  astonishment  and  disgust  None  of  the 
*  upper  leather '  of  these  gentry  ever  go  near  the  place 
or  make  any  careful  inquiry  about  it  The  resident 
English  merchants  imitate  this  indifference.  And  what 
are  these  Free-Kirk  Scotch  ministers  doing?  Busy, 
mayhap,  in  hopeless  efforts  to  convert  a  few  Jews. 
But,  why  are  they  not  here  by  the  bedsides  of 
their  sick  and  dying  countrymen  ?  Where  were  they 
last  autumn  when  the  American  missionaries  had  to 
bury  aU  our  English  dead  ?  They  were  livmg  out  in 
the  country  in  cool  and  pleasant  places,  Constantinople 
was  very  sickly,  they  were  afraid  of  the  cholera — they 
were  taking  good  care  of  themselves.  Surely  these  are 
but  sham  missionaries  I  A  true  missionary  must  be  a 
Christian  hero,  fearless  of  danger  and  patient  under  all 
suffering.     If  they  were  sent  out  and  liberally  paid  to 

*  The  expenses  of  our  embassy  and  consulate  at  Ck>nstantinople  exceed 
25,0007,  per  annum!  I 


mp     III  llJU.^I^Wi^^^' 


Chap.  XXIV.  AMERICAN  MISSIONARIES.  369 

convert  Jews,  could  they  not  now  and  then  find  time  to 
comfort  afflicted  Christians,  to  attend  occasionally  upon 
their  own  suffering  countrymen,  in  this  barbarous,  com- 
fortless place  ?  Do  their  instructions  rigorously  imply 
that  they  are  to  deal  only  with  Israelites  ?  And  in  that 
line  what  have  they  done  ?  Where  are  their  Jewish 
converts  ?  But  why,  above  all,  was  there  not  a  chaplain 
of  the  Church  of  England  appointed  ?  and  why,  when 
there  idos  a  chaplain,  did  he  not  take  a  greater  interest 
in  this  hospital?  It  behoved  him  to  make  strong 
representations  to  the  ambassador,  to  the  consul,  to  the 
merchants ;  his  reports  would  have  carried  weight  even 
with  a  careless  and  ni^ardly  government;  and  a 
respected  and  active  and  zealous  minister  of  the 
Gospel  might  not  only  have  comforted  the  sick,  but 
also  have  been  the  means  of  getting  their  asylum  per- 
manently improved. 

"These  American  missionaries — chiefly  Messrs. 
Dwight,  Everett,  and  Goodell — Have  gratuitously  done 
for  the  English  sailors  more  than  chaplain's  work  (or 
fiup  more  work  than  ever  was  done  by  any  paid  chaplain 
of  ours),  attending  the  sick  in  the  hospital,  performing 
the  fimeral  service  at  all  seasons,  on  the  bleak  or  burn- 
ing hill,  at  the  comer  of  the  Great  Burying-ground, 
which  is  set  apart  for  the  English.  Last  autumn  the 
mortality  among  our  poor  seamen  from  the  Danube  was 
fearftd :  many  died  at  sea  and  were  buried  in  it ;  here, 
above  Pera,  Mr.  Everett  attended  twenty-five  funerals, 
and  Messrs.  Dwight  and  Goodell  seventeen.  They 
were  not  scared  away  by  the  unhealthy  season ;  they 
remained  in  town  when  almost  everybody  else  was  in 
the  country.     One  day,  however,  it  happened  that  all 

VOL.  n.  2  b 


370  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 

the  missionaries  were  absent^  Mr.  Everett  and  Mr. 
Goodell  having  gone  to  the  American  Armenian  school 
at  Bebek.  Consul-general  Comberbach  was  sorely 
afraid  that  he  should  be  obliged  to  read  himself  the 
funeral  service  over  a  dead  sailor.  He  had  fits  of  hot 
and  cold ;  but  he  sent  off  a  messenger  to  Bebek,  and 
one  of  the  missionaries  came  in  immediately  and  per- 
formed the  service.  Yet  Mr.  Consul-general  is  much 
too  great  a  man  to  treat  these  honest  missionaries  with 
anything  but  morgue  and  superciliousness. 

^^  Verily  we  have  here^  at  this  moment,  a  pretty  Lega<« 
tion  and  a  charming  Consulate  I  They  have  allowed  a 
poor  insane  Englishman,  one  Walmsley,  a  boiler-maker 
— driven  crazy  by  the  Armenians  of  the  Imperial 
Works — to  remain  several  days  in  the  horrible  Tophana 
prison,  where  his  madness  will  be  made  complete. 
They  pay  no  attention  whatever  to  the  interests  of  the 
English  working-men  who  have  been  inveigled  by  the 
Armenians.  It  is  much  if  a  man  of  this  class  geta  a 
civil  answer  firom  the  lowest  of  our  Perote  drogomans. 

^*  There  will  be  some  change  in  all  this  when  Sir 
Stratford  comes;  but  when  will  he  come?  This 
diplomatic  hauteur,  this  Legational  indifference,  this 
official  starchness  and  insolence  are  disgracefiil  to  our 
country  and  will  not  long  be  tolerated.  Here  and  dse- 
where  I  have  had  abundan't  opportunities  of  observing 
the  demeanour  of  other  diplomatic  and  consular  bodies, 
and  I  can  confidently  and  most  conscientiously  affirm 
that  I  never  saw  the  subjects  of  despotic  Bu^sia  or  abso* 
lute  Austria,  or  of  any  other  power,  meet  from  their 
representatives  the  treatment  which  is  generally  dealt 
by  our  Legations  and  consuls  to  the  subjects .  of  free, 


Chap.  XXIV.       ENGLISH  HOSPITAL  AT  PERA.  371 

constitutional  England.  Let  hot  people  go  and  dream 
and  rave  about  our  aristoerac^;  our  aristocracy  has 
little  enough  to  do  with  it !  Since  the  passing  of  the 
Beform  Bill  our  real  aristocracy  has  had  less  than  its 
fair  share  in  these  appointments.  The  young  men  of 
family  who  remain  are  generally  the  most  accessible, 
the  best  educated,  and  the  least  presumptuous;  the 
worst  o£fenders  are  mushrooms  of  yesterday's  growth, 
are  men  of  no  name  or  family,  are  upstarts  inflated  by 
their  little  brief  authority. 

^'  It  will  be  fortunate  if  the  Maltese  superintendent, 
who  was  found  dead  drunk  in  the  street,  does  not  on 
some  other  night  set  the  wooden  hospital  on  fire  and 
bum  to  death  such  of  the  inmates  as  are  too  crippled, 
sick,  or  feeble  to  effect  their  own  escape.  In  the  great 
Pera  fire  of  last  September,  when  the  house  was  fullest, 
it  ran  a  narrow  chance  of  being  ocmsumed;  and  the 
greatest  confiision  and  distress  prevailed.  Our  mis- 
sionary firiends,  who  live  in  the  same  lane,  a  few  doors 
ofl^  describe  the  scene  as  piteous  and  most  affecting; 
some  of  the  sick,  nearly  naked,  were  brought  out  on 
men's  shoulders  and  laid  down  on  the  cold,  damp,  flinty 
pavement  under  the  garden  wall  of  our  palace ;  some 
crawled  out  themselves ;  one  sailor,  who  had  wrapped 
himself  in  a  filthy  sheet,  and  who  was  in  a  fever  delirium, 
shouted  and  clapped  his  hands  at  the  raging  fire  which 
threw  a  canopy  of  flame  across  the  street.  The  saddest 
case  of  all  was  this : — a  poor  young  sailor  who  had  been 
admitted  fer  a  pulmonary  complaint,  and  who  "had 
recovered  in  the  hospital,  in  hurriedly  removing  his 
bedding  and  clothes,  fell  against  his  sea-chest,  broke  a 
blood*vessel,  and  died.     Mr.  Goodell  and  Mr.  Everett, 

2b2 


:<«&.==:- 


372  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 

who  had  attended  him  in  his  sickness,  spoke  affection- 
ately and  tenderly  of  him :  he  was  an  excellent  young 
man,  had  been  decently  brought  up,  had  a  love  of  read- 
ing, and  strong  moral  and  religious  convictions.  His 
aged,  afflicted  mother  is  now  writing  from  England  for 
his  effects,  which,  as  usual,  are  not  to  be  found  I 

*  ^^  Dr.  Maddox,  who  has  recently  been  appointed  to 
succeed  the  remorseless  Irishman,  seems  to  be  a  very 
different  man — intelligent,  active,  humane,  and  of  the 
best  principles.  But  he  has  no  funds,  no  co-operation, 
no  support  or  encouragement.  When  he  speaks  to  the 
Consul^eneral  about  the  urgent  wants  of  the  establish- 
ment, that  potentate  shrugs  his  shoulders  and  says  that 
government  is  always  complaining  of  such  slight  charges 
as  are  now  incurred— says  that  he  has  no  funds,  and  can 
do  nothing.  Lately  government  has  sent  out  orders 
that  the  captains  of  ships  are  to  pay  for  the  medicine 
and  food  of  their  sailors  while  in  hospital,  the  rest  of 
the  charges  being  borne  by  the  British  nation  as  before. 
Maltese  sailors  are  admissible  into  the  hospital,  but  our 
protected  subjects,  the  Greek  sailors  of  the  Ionian 
islands,  are  not  If  the  poor  lonians  can  get  admitted 
into  the  Greek  hospital  (as  I  believe  they  rather  fre- 
quently do)  they  have  nothing  to  regret,  for  that  esta- 
blishment is  in  excellent  order;  or  if  they  can  be 
received  in  any  other  Frank  hospital  they  are  fortunate, 
for  French,  Russian,  Austrian,  or  Sardinian,  all  are 
incomparably  better  than  the  English  hospital.  When 
the  port  is  crowded  with  English  shipping  there  is  not 
room  in  this  baraque  for  half  of  the  sick  seamen ;  the 
rest  are  attended  on  board  ship,  the  captain  being  bound 
to  pay  the  doctor  one  dollar  for  every  visit    There  is  a 


Mptl-        —  >  -  - 


Chap.  XXIV.    ENGLISH  HOSPITAL  AT  SMYRNA.  373 

great  and  increasing  number  of  English  mechanics^ 
engineers,  kc^  all  likely  to  be  affected  by  endemic  dis- 
eases, and  by  the  fitfol,  violently  varying  climate,  which 
hardly  ever  fails  to  give  a  stranger  some  inflammatory 
attack ;  but  all  these  men  are  excluded,  none  but  sailors 
can  be  admitted  into  this  narrow  hospital — the  name, 
the  rights  of  British  subjects  are  pleaded  in  vain*  One 
poor  fellow,  visited  by  temporary  insanity,  has  been  sent 
to  a  Turkish  gaol  among  cut-purses  and  cut-throats; 
another  English  workman  who  has  broken  his  leg  must 
go  into  the  French  hospital ;  another,  wounded  by  the 
bayonet  of  a  Turkish  soldier,  must  apply  at  the  same 
door  for  relief. 

**  In  1829  I  called  attention  to  the  neglected,  shameful 
condition  of  the  English  hospital  at  Smyrna.  By  so 
doing  I  drew  down  upon  my  own  head  a  great  deal  of 
hatred  and  abuse  from  certain  quarters ;  but  good  came 
of  it  That  hospital  is  now  in  decent  order.  Towards 
its  support  every  British  vessel  which  enters  the  port 
of  Smyrna  pays  a  certain  sum  proportionate  to  her 
tonnage.  I  believe  the  rate  is  only  1  ^d,  per  ton.  The 
captains  pay  this  money  cheerfully,  and  no  complainto 
are  ever  heard  from  merchants  or  shipowners.  Why 
has  not  this  rule  been  adopted  here?  What  but  a 
culpable  negligence,  a  criminal  indifference,  can  have 
prevented  our  men  in  authority  from  thinking  of  this 
plan,  which,  close  at  hand,  is  found  to  work  so  well  ? 
Had  it  existed  last  year,  when  upwards  of  900  vessels 
sailing  under  the  British  flag,  and  averi^ng  150  tons 
each,  anchored  in  the  Golden  Horn,  a  sum  would  have 
been  already  obtained  which  might  have  set  the  hospital 
in  order,  and  have  rendered  that  establishment  inde^ 


374  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 

pendent  of  the  stinted,  begnu^ed  bounty  of  this  un* 
English  government  Continue  such  a  system  lluree  or 
four  years,  and,  if  your  trade  continue,  there  will  be 
money  in  hand  to  erect,  on  a  clear,  airy  spot,  a  good 
spacious  stone  building,  safe  and  impervious  to  the 
terrible  fires  which  are  here  of  such  constant  occur- 
rence.  I  cannot  but  feel  that  time  and  attention  be- 
stowed on  this  subject  would  be  far  better  employed 
than  in  diplomatizing  with  Beschid  Pasha,  and  in  ter- 
rifying the  Turks  widi  visions  of  Russian  conquest,  or 
in  forcing  them  into  an  attitude  which  may  very  possibly 
provoke  the  attack  of  the  powo^  Tzar.** 

The  palace  built  at  Pera  by  the  Levant  Company 
for  the  residence  of  our  Embassy  was  burned  to  the 
ground,  with  everything  in  it,  in  the  terrible  conflagra- 
tion  of  1831,  when  more  than  half  of  Pera  was  con- 
sumed. For  a  long  time  the  government  showed  no 
disposition  to  rebuild  what  a  company  of  merchants 
had  built*  Our  Ambassadors  and  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Legation  were  left  to  lodge  themselves  as  they  best 
could ;  and,  esLoept  at  Therapia  in  the  summer  time, 
they  had  rarely  a  house  in  which  they  could  do  the 
duties  of  hospitality  or  receive  any  society.  About 
seven  years  ago  the  Woods  and  Forests  sent  out  a  pet 
man,  a  Mr.  Smith  (whose  name  I  am  told  was  un- 
known among  architects)  upon  a  fixed  and  high  annual 
salary  to  reconstruct  the  palace  in  solid  stone.  For 
the  accomplishment  of  this  work  a  grant  of  dO,000£i  was 
obtained  from  Parliament,  but  although  the  building 
was  yet  far  from  being  finished,  government  had  been 
repeatedly  called  upon  for  more  money;  and  in  the 

*  The  late  Levant  Company. 


Chap.  XXIV.        MR.  SMITH  THE  ARCHITECT.  375 

session  of  1848,  in  addition,  I  believe,  to  other  sums 
previously  granted,  10,000Z.  were  voted  for  this  am- 
bassadorial residence.    It  ought  to  have  been  finished 
long  ago.     Perhaps  the  fixing  of  an  annual  salary  for 
the  architect  was  not  the  best  way  of  urging  him  to 
activity  and  despatch :  the  longer  the  place  was  a-build- 
ing,    the   more  money  he  would  pocket     Then   this 
Mr.  Smith  was  allowed  to  engage  largely  in  other 
business*     Except  at  the  English  palace,  he  was  an 
active,  bustling  man ;  if  he  had  not  talent  for  intrigue, 
he  had  the  art  of  captivating  the  good  will  of  those 
who  had  that  talent,  wanting  which  no  man  can  do  any-- 
thing  in  Turkey  t  he  was  a  Papist,  he  had  a  Spanish 
wife,  and  in  the  proper  quarters  he  was  said  to  affect 
an  ultra-Papistical  zeal,  which  gained  him  the  support 
not  only  of  the  bigoted  Perotes,  but  also  of  the  big  and 
powerfiil  Roman  Catholic  Armenians,  who  fill  so  many 
government  places  and  have  such  an  immense  influence 
at  the  Porte.     While   other  and  far  abler  men  got 
nothing  to  do,  profitable  work  came  tumbling  in  upon 
Mr.  Smith,  the  man  of  the  Woods  and  Forests,  from 
iQI  quarters.     He  indulged  himself  with  a  long  absence 
and  a  continental  tour,-  voyageant  en  Prince ;  but  his 
English  pay  went  on  all  the  same,  and  the  work  he 
was  doing  for  the  people  of  the  country  was  carried 
on  under  Armenian  superintendence  by  Greek  and 
Armenian  builders.    In  our  time  he  was  building  a 
stone  theatre  at  Pera,  to  replace  a  wooden  one  which 
had  been  consumed ;  he  was  building  the  new  medical 
school  in  the  grand  cemetery,  and  he  was  conducting 
ever  so  many  other  works  for  the  Sultan,  for  great 
pashas,  and  for  rich  Armenian  bankers.     His  hands 


376  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIV. 

were  full  of  work,  his  head  was  all  hurry  and  confiision ; 
he  could  seldom  find  time  to  look  in  at  the  English 
palace.  We  could  never  see  him  there,  but  what  we 
could  and  did  see  were  men  loitering  over  their  work, 
or  smoking  their  pipes,  or  slee{Hng  under  the  shade  of 
the  garden  wall.  He  had  chosen  for  his  purchaser  of 
materials  and  general  **  master  of  the  works,"  at  the 
English  palace  and  elsewhere,  an  Armenian  jeweller, 
proprietor  of  the  comfortless  house  in  Fera  in  which 
our  Ambassadors  have  been  condemned  to  live  of  late 
years  during  the  winter  season.  This  Armenian  re- 
joices in  the  name  of  Migraditch  Samanji  Oglou.  It 
is  notorious  to  all  Pera  and  Galata  that  he  was  deep  in 
debt  until  he  let  his  house  to  our  Embassy,  and  got  to 
supply  Mr.  Smith  with  building  materials;  that  his 
one  Pera  house  was  heavily  mortgaged ;  that  no  one 
would  trust  him  for  a  dollar ;  and  that  now  he  is  free 
of  debt  and  mortgage,  has  a  great  command  of  ready 
money,  and  is  rapidly  buying  up  houses  and  other 
valuable  property.  In  the  spring  of  1848  he  purchased 
seven  houses.  I  do  not  pretend  that  all  this  sudden 
wealth  has  been  gotten  out  of  the  English  palace ;  no 
doubt  Baron  *  Migraditeh  Samanji  Oglou  has  had  his 
pickings,  his  incerte  at  the  theatre,  at  the  new  medical 
school,  and  elsewhere ;  but  we  had  good  reasons  for 
believing  that  some  of  the  plunder  did  come  out  of  our 
pockets.  In  1847  certain  teffokj  or  large,  thick,  flat 
tiles,  were  bought  and  laid  in  for  the  palace,  the  price 
then  being  about  10  paras  each.    In  the  spring  of  1848 

^  Baron  is  an  Armenian  word,  and  (I  am  told)  very  good  Armenian  for 
Monsieur,  Signore,  Mr.,  and  Sir ;  but  the  Armenians  are  well  aware  of  ita 
signification  in  French  and  English,  and  are  therefore  incessantly  wAg  it. 


Chap.  XXIV.     HIGRADITCH  SAMANJI  OGLOU.  377 

t^ole  were  wanted  for  the  new  theatre,  and  the  market 
price  of  the  articles  was  nearly  double  what  it  had 
been ;  therefore  Migraditch  Samanji  Oglou  takes  the 
tiles  from  the  British  palace,  uses  th^on  up  in  the 
theatre,  and  buys  new  tiles  for  the  palace  at  the  present 
high  rate.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  the 
theatre  was  being  built  by  contract  and  that  the  British 
palace  was  noL  An  honest  Turk  who  lived  not  far 
from  Ponte  Piccolo,  had  quarried  some  good  stone  and 
had  carried  it,  at  his  own  expense,  into  Pera  according 
to  orders  received  from  Samanji  Oglou ;  when  there, 
the  Armenian  broke  his  bargain,  fixed  his  own  price  on 
the  stone,  bullied  the  poor  Turk,  and  told  him  that  as 
the  material  was  for  the  English  Ambassador  he  must 
sell  cheap.  Not  a  stone  has  been  put  in  the  palace  but 
government  has  had  to  pay  the  t)ery  highest  price  for 
it,  otherwise  so  much  money  could  not  have  been 
swallowed  up  !  The  Turk,  who  had  lost  money,  would 
quarry  and  carry  no  more  stones  to  Pera.  He  said 
that  on  Sir  Stratford's  return  he  would  lay  bis  case 
before  him.     I  recommended  him  to  do  so. 

It  was  in  everybody's  mouth  that  a  fine  gaspillage 
was  going  on  at  our  palace.  A  common  Armenian 
labourer  who  superintended  the  lime-kilns  there  had 
grown  quite  rich  and  fat.  And  the  English  sailors 
were  pining  in  that  den,  under  the  palace  walls,  without 
any  of  the  comforts  essential  to  their  condition  I 

The  edifice  that  was  being  so  slowly  raised,  and  at 
so  enormous  an  expense  to  the  people  of  England,  was 
utterly  destitute  of  beauty  or  of  any  architectural  merit 
It  was  of  the  old,  mechanical,  hard-lined,  angular,  tea^ 
caddy  style  or  pattern,  being  disproportionately  high, 


378  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  X33V. 

and  having  at  the  two  ends  of  the  roof  a  stack  of  chim- 
neys sticking  ap  like  long  ears  on  the  head  of  an  ass. 
I  could  never  look  at  its  form  without  being  reminded 
of  an  upright  tea-caddy  that  belonged  to  my  grand- 
mother* We  were  told  that  it  looked  best  at  a  dis- 
tance ;  but  we  could  never  get  far  enough  off  to  see  it 
look  well.  From  the  ridge  of  hills  behind  Pera,  in  the 
direction  of  Daoud  Pasha,  its  aspect  was  hideous :  there, 
you  saw  all  its  lean,  lanky  height,  white,  whitewash- 
looking  walls,  pierced  with  many  small  windows,  mono- 
tonous as  a  cotton  &ctory,  tamer  than  a  third-rate 
union  workhouse  I  It  stood  up  impudently  on  a  fine 
elevation,  an  excellent  site  for  a  first-rate  building,  and 
glared  upon  your  eyes  until  they  ached  again.  It  was 
positively  a  relief  to  drop  into  the  valley  behind  the 
heights,  and  lose  sight  of  the  doings  of  the  Woods  and 
Forests  architect.  It  was  a  palace  with  nothing  palatial 
about  it — it  was  only  a  big  house.  Where  any  archi- 
tectural decoration  had  been  attempted,  as  over  the 
windows  and  doorways,  it  was  of  the  most  common- 
place kind,  without  reliei^  without  effect,  invisible  at 
any  distance.  To  say  nothing  of  builders  in  England, 
I  would  find  in  Scotland  five  hundred  common  stone- 
masons capable  of  fiimishing  a  more  artistic  design  and 
erecting  a  better  house  than  this.  Mr.  Smith  had  some 
admirers  or  proneura ;  but  they  all  gave  up  his  exterior 
— they  had  nothing  to  say  for  that :  they  stuck  to  the 
interior,  which  nobody  could  see.  They  agreed  that 
the  new  stone  palace  of  the  Russian  embassy  had  the 
character  and  appearance  of  a  palace ;  that  the  new 
French  palace,  though  unpretending,  was  palatial^  and 
that  the  old  Austrian  or  Venetian  palace  had  the  relief 


Chap.  XXIV.       THE  NEW  ENGLISH  PALACE.  379 

and  tiie  graces  of  Italian  architecture ;  *^  but  then^^  said 
they,  *^none  of  these  palaces  are  well  distributed  or 
oomibrtable  widiin,  whereas  Mr.  Smith  is  making  an 
interior  as  sni^  and  comfortable  as  that  of  a  house  in 
Grosvenor-square ;  you  should  see  Mr.  Smith's  interior." 
We  never  could  see  it ;  with  other  Englishmen  we  were 
constantly  repulsed  at  the  doorway  by  a  surly  old  Turk 
and  two  ill-mannered  Armenians.  Mr.  Smith  was  never 
there,  and  he  was  much  too  great  a  man  to  be  addressed 
by  a  stranger  in  a  note.  As  he  was  said  to  have  refused 
admittance  to  Lady  Canning,  who  wanted  to  see  the 
prc^ess  he  was  making,  and  to  show  the  house  to  the 
lady  of  another  ambassador  (protesting  that  he  could 
not  have  his  work  looked  over  in  an  unfinished  state), 
we  could  scarcely  expect  that  he  would  condescend  to 
admit  us.  With  Lord  Cowley  he  was  scarcely  upon 
speaking  terms :  two  of  the  young  men  attached  to  the 
embassy  said  that  he  was  ^'  a  devilish  high  chap,''  and 
they  did  not  like  to  interfere  or  have  anything  to  say 
with  him.  If  I  had  been  very  anxious  about  it,  I  would 
have  bribed  the  Armenians  some  evening  and  have  gotten 
in ;  but  (although  I  should  wish  Sir  S.  Canning  and  his 
successors  to  be  well  lodged)  I  cared  very  little  about 
Mr.  Smith's  insidey  having  quite  enough  of  his  outside. 
I  doubted  whether  a  man  who  had  perpetrated  such  ex- 
ternal deformities  was  capable  of  good  internal  arrange- 
ments, or  likely  to  xmite  the  essentials  of  comfort  in  the 
dwelling  apartments,  with  space,  light,  airiness,  and 
stateliness  in  the  state  apartment.  From  the  size  of  his 
windows  I  fancy  that  most  of  his  rooms  must  be  dark 
and  close,  and  from  the  flatness  of  his  roof  I  conclude 
that  the  upper  part  of  his  house  will  be  a  perfect  oven 


380  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXIT. 

in  summer  time.  Sir  S.  Canning's  good  taste  might 
have  prevented  many  of  the  deformities;  and  as  he  was 
to  be  the  first  that  was  to  occupy  the  house,  and  was 
likely  to  live  in  it  for  some  years,  one  might  think  he 
ought  to  have  been  allowed  a  voice  in  capitulo ;  but  Mr. 
Smith  would  listen  to  nobody — he  had  his  own  plan, 
and  would  follow  it  out— he  was  independent  of  the 
Ambassador — he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Legation 
— he  had  a  separate  appointment — he  had  been  sent 
out  by  the  Woods  and  Forests  I  There  was  no  man  of 
taste  but  wished  him  back  in  the  woods  and  forests. 

The  English  chapel,  which  stood  at  some  distance 
from  the  palace,  was  destroyed  by  the  fire  of  September, 
1847,  having  been  shut  up  more  than  a  year  for  want 
of  a  chaplain  or  resident  English  clergyman.  As  it  was 
detached  and  built  of  stone,  it  might  have  been  saved  by 
spending  a  little  money,  and  employing  a  little  ingenuity 
and  activity ;  but  all  the  English  authorities  were  away 
in  the  country — no  efibrt  was  made — ^what  had  cost 
large  sums  of  money  was  left  to  feed  the  flames — and 
the  only  place  of  worship  we  had  at  Constantinople 
remains  a  sad  ruin.  At  least  down  to  July,  1848, 
nothing  was  done  to  restore  it,  nor  was  there  even  a 
talk  of  its  restoration.  In  the  month  of  June  of  that 
year  a  new  chaplain  did  at  last  arrive  from  England, 
but  there  was  neither  house  nor  chapel  for  him. 


-••^ 


Ceap.  XXV.  STATE  OF  AGBICULTUBB.  381 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Sad  State  of  Agricalture  in  the  Keighbourliood  of  CoEurtantinople  -^ 
Reschid  Pasha's  Model  Farm  —  Ponte  Piccolo,  or  Kutchuk  Tchekme^jeh 
—  Decaying  Population  —  Turkish  Passport  System  —  Farm  of  Khos- 
reff  Pasha  —  Greek  Tillage  of  AmbarU  —  Mr.  Francois  Barreau,  the 
Manager  of  Reschid  Pasha's  Farm  —  The  treatment  he  and  his  French 
Wife  had  received  from  the  Pasha  —  The  Model  Farm  abandoned  and 
a  wilderness  —  Armenian  Roguery  and  Turkish  want  of  Faith  — 
Obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  all  Improvement  —  The  French  Catholic 
Farm,  and  the  Polish  Agricultural  Colony  in  Asia  —  Our  Journey 
thither  —  A  Pastoral  Nook  —  Sisters  of  Charity  —  The  Polish  Settle- 
ment —  A  Romance  dissipated  —  Abundance  of  Wild  Hogs,  Deer,  and 
other  Gkune  —  Armenian  Farm  near  Buyuk-der^  —  Horticulture  and 
Floriculture. 

It  required  magnifying  glasses  of  high  power  to  dis- 
cover  any  signs  of  agricultural  improvement.  Europe 
seemed  as  bad  in  this  respect  as  Asia  Minor,  and  the 
neighbourhood  of  Constantinople  far  worse  than  the 
vicinity  of  Brusa.  We  were  told  that  we  ought  to  go 
and  see  Keschid  Pasha's  chiftlik>  only  a  few  miles  off,  on 
the  shore  of  the  Propontis.  Several  Perotes  assured 
me  that  this  was  quite  a  model  farm,  that  the  Pasha 
had  there  introduced  scientific  French  farmers,  French 
implements,  and  all  the  agricultural  improvements  of 
•Europe.  I  found,  however,  upon  inquiry,  that  not  one 
of  these  gentlemen  had  ever  visited  the  spot.  But  as  I 
knew  that  Reschid,  both  in  London  and  in  Paris,  had 
agreed  with  all  those  who  recommended  an  attention  to 
agriculture  as  the  best  means  of  improving  the  empire, 
and  even  set  himself  forward  as  a  most  zealous  patron 


382  TURKEY  A2ID  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV, 

of  agriculture,  I  resolved  to  go  to  his  farm  and  judge 
for  myself. 

We  had  been  staying  two  or  three  days  at  Maori- 
keui,  observing  the  frightful  waste  of  money  in  the 
abortive  attempt  to  establish  manufactures,  when — on 
the  29th  of  February — taking  advantage  of  a  little  fine 
weather,  we  started  from  that  village  to  ride  to  the 
Grand  Vizier's  chifllik.  The  country  beyond  the  vil- 
lage was  little  more  than  one  wide  bare  waste — prettily 
undulated,  but  aU  bare.  We  were  on  one  of  the  high 
roads  of  European  Turkey,  the  road  to  Adrianojde, 
Philippopoli,  &c. ;  we  were  barely  three  leagues  firom 
the  walls  of  Constantinople,  and  yet  we  hardly  met  a 
human  being.  A  little  before  noon,  or  about  two  hours 
after  leaving  Macri-keui,  we  reached  the  village  of 
Ponte  Piccolo  or  Kutchuk  Tchekmedjeh.  This  un- 
healthy place,  lying  in  a  hollow,  dose  to  a  stagnant 
lake,  and  swamps,  and  bogs,  was  in  a  mournful  state  of 
dilapidation.  There  were  great  gaps  where  houses  once 
stood ;  the  villas  and  Turkish  kiosks  on  the  hill,  which 
so  charmed  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  who  re- 
posed here  for  a  night,  were  swept  away  or  were  ia 
ruins.  Nothing  of  her  ladyship's  pretty  picture  re- 
mained except  the  grove  of  cypresses.  The  families  of 
those  who  had  built  them  and  other  kiosks  on  the  hill 
sides  had  long  since  been  extinguished  by  plague,  or 
war,  or  tyranny,  or  by  that  worst  of  tyrants,  poverty^ 
The  land,  the  ruin%  the  skeleton — ^the  bare  bones  of 
former  prosperity — seemed  now  all  to  belong  to  the 
Armenian  Dadians.  The  Greeks  have  fled  the  place 
on  account  of  the  malaria ;  the  Turks  can  do  next  to 
nothing  without  them.    Lady  Mary  describes  the  village 


j-^'.ih^ta'rf^--    -    T-j^mmiitmmam^^ 


Chap,  XXV,       VmULGE  OF  PONTE  PICCOLO.  383 

as  being  considerable  in  her  time.  Her  ladyship  was 
sadly  given  to  exaggeration ;  but  of  my  own  knowledge 
I  can  assert  that  Ponte  Piccolo  twenty  years  ago  was 
twice  as  populous  as  it  is  now.  Turn  which  way  we 
would  we  saw  nothing  but  ruins.  Even  the  beautiful 
Moresque  fountain  in  the  midst  of  the  village  was 
broken  and  defaced.  Two  mosques  were  level  with  the 
ground,  and  the  one  that  remained  was  in  a  tottering 
state. 

We  spent  an  hour  at  the  coffee-house,  conversing 
with  some  of  the  Turkish  villagers,  who  considered  the 
desolation  aroimd  them  as  only  a  part  of  inevitable 
kismet.  All  the  men  were  sitting  cross-legged  in  the 
sim  smoking  their  tchibouques;  we  saw  no  one  at 
work. 

At  12*30  P.M.  we  remounted  our  sorry  nags.  At 
the  head  of  the  bridge,  which  crosses  the  end  of  the 
lake,  we  were  brought  to  a  standstill  by  a  Turkish 
guard,  who  asked  us  for  teskeres,  or  passports.  We 
were  unprovided,  not  having  known  that  a  pass  was 
necessary  to  go  so  short  a  distance.  A  lean,  hungry- 
looking  Albanian,  in  command  of  the  guard,,  told  us 
very  fiercely  that  we  mqst  not  cross  the  bridge ;  that 
his  orders  were  peremptory,  that  not  even  a  Mussulman 
could  pass  without  a  teskere.  I  thought  of  backshish, 
and  was  putting  my  hand  into  my  pocket,  when  the 
calm  philosophic  Tonco^  our  present  guide,  said,  ^^  Let 
me  try  a  few  soft  words  first ;.  should  they  fail,  we 
will  try  the  grushes  afterwards^'  He  had  a  very 
persuasive  tongue  this  Tonco,  and  was  not  deficient 
in  imagination.  He  told  the  stark  Albanian  that  I 
was  a  g^eat  English  Bey,  and  a  bosom  friend  of  the 


'm^mmmmmmmmmm 


384  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

Vizier ;  that  we  were  only  going  to  the  Vizier's  chiftlik, 
and  would  be  presently  back  at  Kutchuk-Tchekmedjeh, 
and  he  dealt  out  so  many  "  my  eyes,**  "  my  soul,** 
"  my  lambs,*'  that  the  fierce  irregular  relented,  and 
let  us  pass  on  without  t^skere,  and  without  payment  of 
backshish.  All  the  vigilance  of  the  Turks,  as  well 
about  bills  of  health  as  passports,  is  concentrated  at 
the  end  of  this  bridge :  once  over  it  you  are  never 
stopped.  So,  gentlemen  who  have  been  committing 
oflences,  or  who,  for  other  reasons,  find  it  inconvenient 
to  show  themselves,  or  provide  themselves  with  pass- 
ports, just  walk  or  ride  a  few  miles  round,  turn  the 
head  of  the  lake,  and  then  go  on  their  way. 

In  half  an  hour,  we  quitted  the  Adrianople  road, 
to  strike  across  some  vast,  bare,  uninclosed  fields,  be- 
longing to  a  farm  of  the  famous  old  Khosreff  Pasha, 
one  of  the  very  greatest  men  of  the  Ottoman  empire. 
One  might  as  well  call  the  worst  part  of  Salisbury 
Plain  a  farm  I  We  could  discover  on  it  scarcely  a 
symptom  of  farming.  There  was  no  trenching  or 
draining;  in  the  hollows  of  the  undulating  soil  our 
horses  stuck  in  the  mud,  and  were  with  diffictdty 
flogged  out  of  it;  everywhere  else  they  sunk  to  the 
fetlock-joint  On  we  went  sticking  or  crawKng  for  a 
good  hour,  without  meeting  a  tree  or  a  bush,  a  ploughed 
field  or  a  plough,  a  farm  servant,  or  an  ox,  or  an  ass. 
At  last  we  came  up  to  a  large  but  most  wretched 
wooden  house,  with  barns  and  outhouses  all  tumbling 
to  pieces.  Here  were  two  or  three  tall  trees,  and  a 
patch  of  vineyard  with  a  good  ditch  dug  round  it ; 
but  there  was  nobody  to  speak  to  except  an  old  woman 
(who  was  scared  at  the  sight  of  my  infidel  hat),  and 


— T   _  —  ^^^^  ■  '-^^^^^^^^SffS^S^g^MB^^^^^^B^Mfej^-a  "^a       '  i —  ^  I  "iiT     —  ~^ —  '**  *^ 


Chap.  XXV.        GREEK  VILLAGE  OF  AMBARLI.  385 

some  large  and  seemingly  fierce  dogs,  that  rushed  as 
if  they  would  pull  us  from  our  horses. 

A  little  way  beyond  this,  we  came  upon  a  bit  of 
very  steep  and  very  roughly  paved  causeway.  This 
break-neck  road  brought  us  down  to  the  small  Greek 
village  of  Ambarli,  most  pleasantly  situated  on  the 
shore  of  the  Propontis.  At  the  coffee-house,  over- 
hanging the  sea,  where  we  alighted,  we  were  met  by 
strange  news;  the  chiftlik,  to  which  we  were  bound, 
was  no  longer  farmed  by  the  Grand  Vizier;  Keschid 
Pasha  had  given  it  up  long  ago  — "  But,"  added  the 
cafejee,  ^'  here  is  the  French  gentleman  who  last  had 
charge  of  it,  and  who  can  tell  you  all  about  it." 

A  respectable,  mild-looking  Frenchman  came  up  to 
us.  Strangers'  visits  were  very  rare  at  Ambarli :  he 
had  seen  us  pass  ;  he  had  a  house  in  the  village,  and  he 
had  hurried  to  offer  us  his  hospitality.  His  name  was 
Fran9ois  Barreau.  He  was  a  native  of  the  vine-clad 
Burgundy,  coming  from  a  place  on  the  Cote  d'Or,  not 
far  from  Dijon.  He  was  bom  and  raised  among  vine- 
yards ;  for  many  generations  his  family  had  been  vine- 
dressers. But  he  had  studied  in  an  agricultural  school, 
and  had  had  good  practice  in  general  farming.  He 
strongly  dissuaded  us  from  continuing  our  journey, 
although  we  had  scarcely  a  mile  farther  to  go.  "  There 
is  the  farm,"  said  he,  "  right  before  you,  beyond  that 
hollow  "  (we  looked  and  saw  a  continuation  of  the  bare 
heaths  we  had  been  crossing) ;  "there  is  no  road  or  path 
to  it  from  this  village :  the  chances  are  that  you  will  get 
bogged.  And  if  you  get  there,  there  is  nothing  in  the 
world  to  see  but  a  few  hungry  camels.  You  have  seen 
Khosreff  Pasha  s  farm.     Well !  Eeschid  Pasha's  is  worse 

VOL,  II.  2  c 


mi^^^^KKm'^^mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmvm 


386,  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

—far  worse  I  The  only  building  on  it  is  a  great  bam. 
I  made  two  miserable  rooms  for  myself,  and  had  to  pay 
for  them.  The  Vizier  has  had  nothing  to  do  with  tfie 
farm  these  last  two  years :  he  lets  it  to  Boghos  Dadian, 
the  gunpowder  man,  and  Boghos  has  destroyed  or  is 
destroying  the  little  that  I  was  enabled  to  do  during 
my  management'' 

Instead  of  going  on  to  the  model  chiMik,  we  went 
with  the  honest  hospitable  Burgundian  to  his  house, 
where  we  found  a  very  sensible  French  woman,  his  wife. 
Though  an  awkward,  rickety,  wooden  thing,  the  house 
was  within  of  exemplary  and  most  rare  cleanliness  and 
neatness.  The  room  in  which  they  gave  us  refresh- 
ments was  as  soignee  as  a  lady's  boudoir.  There  were 
some  books  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  and  there  were 
other  signs  of  civilization.  The  hostess  spoke  French 
like  a  well  educated  person,  and  spoke  with  great  good 
sense  and  much  feeling.  She  was  a  superior  woman  of 
the  middle  provincial  class  of  society — ^a  class  in  France 
among  whom  I  have  very  often  found  much  virtue  and 
honour,  as  well  as  intelligence.  She  was  in  a  sad  state 
of  health,  and  sorely  depressed  in  spirits.  Between 
ihem  the  husband  and  wife  related  the  whole  of  tlieir 
Turkish  adventures  in  a  clear  straightforward  way. 

During  Keschid  Pasha's  intimacy  with  M.  Guizot,  he 
applied  to  the  French  Minister  for  an  active  skilful 
man  to  take  charge  of  his  farm  near  Constantinople, 
and  conduct  the  improvements  he  was  so  anxious  to 
introduce.  M.  Guizot  took  a  warm  interest  in  the 
matter;  and,  after  seeing  several  persons,  he  recom- 
mended to  the  Fasha  our  friend  Fran9ois  Barreau,  who 
had  the  best  of  testimonials  as  to  character  and  ability, 


Chap.  XXV.    M.  BARBEAU,  THE  AGRICULTURIST.         •  "  387 

including  letters  from  the  professors  of  the  agricultural 
school  in  which  he  had  studied.  Among  his  qualifica- 
tions was  a  knowledge  of  chemistry  as  applicable  to 
agriculture.  Reschid  Pasha  engaged  him  at  once. 
This  was  at  Paris  in  the  year  1842.  The  poor  fellow, 
relying  on  the  character  and  station  of  the  French 
Prime  Minister  who  recommended  him,  and  the  rank 
and  liberal  professions  of  the  Turkish  Ambassador,  who 
was  represented  by  everybody  as  being  a  high-minded 
man,  did  not  ask  for  any  contract  or  written  agreement 
He  satisfied  himself  with  the  pasha's  verbal  promise 
that  he  should  have  1000  piastres  a  month,  food,  and  a 
good  house  to  live  in,  and  that  everything  should  be 
done  to  make  him  comfortable  on  the  farm  and  facilitate 
his  improvements.  The  salary  was  low  enough,  being 
little  more  than  1002.  a-year.  The  blundering  Turks 
had  brought  out  common  mechanics  at  2502.  per 
annum !  When  Barreau  arrived  he  found  no  house  to 
live  in,  no  food  (except  what  he  could  buy  in  this 
village),  very  irregular  and  begrudged  payments,  envy, 
hatred,  and  malice  from  the  pasha's  agents  and  people, 
semi-starvation,  and  every  possible  discomfort.  Having 
been  told  that  the  chiftlik  was  only  three  or  four  leagues 
from  Constantinople,  and  judging  of  roads  and  com- 
munication by  what  he  knew  in  France,  he  had  fancied 
that  it  would  be  very  easy  to  quit  his  solitude  occa- 
sionally and  visit  the  capital.  He  had  no  suspicion  of 
the  horrible  state  of  the  roads,  which,  during  the  wet 
season,  renders  a  journey  from  Constantinople  to  this 
place  nearly  the  business  of  a  whole  day.  Nor  was  he 
prepared  to  find  Constantinople  itself  a  more  comfortless 
place  than  the  poorest  village  in  Burgundy.     He  had 

2  c2 


388  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

been  promised  all  necessary  implements  and  none  came ; 
and  none  were  to  be  purchased  in  Turkey.      When  old 

H *8  iron-works  were  established  at  Macri-keui,  he 

was  told  that  good  ploughs  and  all  manner  of  the  best 
implements  would  be  made  there.  Like  Dr.  Davis  at 
a  later  period,  he  could  never  get  anything  from  Macri- 
keui.  The  people  there  were  busy  from  the  first 
making  toys  for  the  Sultan.  Barreau,  however,  went 
to  work  with  such  tools  as  he  could  get.  Seeing  that 
the  great  want  all  along  this  coast  was  the  want  of  trees, 
he  planted  a  good  number — to  see  them  speedily 
destroyed.  He  also  planted  some  good  vineyards  on 
favourable  soil  and  sunny  slopes.  He  made  some  mul- 
berry plantations  and  inclosed  parts  of  the  wild  waste 
with  hedge  and  ditch ;  and  here  he  introduced  a  good 
system  of  drainage.  He  was  left  to  spend  his  own 
money,  or  a  great  part  of  the  pay  he  received,  in  pay- 
ing the  labourers.  When  he  applied  for  money  to 
extend  his  improvements,  he  could  get  none.  Keschid 
Pasha,  who  was  now  at  Constantinople,  wanted  imme- 
diate and  large  returns  of  profit,  without  making  any 
previous  outlay  whatsoever.  If  the  farm  was  to  be 
improved  and  a  good  example  set  to  the  people  of  the 
country,  it  must  all  be  done  at  no  expense,  or  at  the 
cost  of  the  poor  Frenchman. 

The  pasha  left  the  country  to  return  to  Paris,  but  in 
so  doing  he  did  not  leave  any  money  to  pay  Barreau's 
salary  or  to  carry  out  the  improvement  scheme. 
Funds  for  these  two  purposes  were  to  be  taken  out  of 
the  sale  of  the  produce.  But,  lo  and  behold  I  as  soon 
as  the  produce  was  got  in,  the  pasha's  Armenian  banker, 
with  whom  Beschid  was  deep  in  debt,  sent  down  to  the 


fmmffiimmmmmf9«''^''''''^F^mmf'^^^^ 


Chap.  XXV.       BESCHID  PASHA'S  MODEL  FARM.  389 

farm,  carried  it  all  ofi^  sold  it,  and  kept  every  para  of 
the  money.  The  honest  Burgundian  was  well  nigh 
starving :  the  Armenian  seraff  had  no  bowels  of  com* 
passion  for  the  Frenchman,  and  but  little  conscience  for 
the  pasha,  for  he  made  it  appear  that  the  farm  rendered 
no  profit,  and  he  falsified  the  accounts  of  produce  and 
sale  in  the  most  scandalous  manner.  All  the  time 
Reschid  was  in  the  country  he  never  but  once  visited  the 
farm  about  which  he  had  made  such  a  talk  in  Christen- 
dom ;  all  the  time  that  he  was  decking  himself  out  in 
the  false  plumage  of  a  patron  and  improver  of  agricul- 
ture, he  never  built  a  house  or  a  hut  on  his  barbarous 
waste  domam,  he  never  introduced  an  improved  farm- 
ing implement,  he  never  made  or  mended  a  road,  he 
never  would  or  could  make  any  outlay.  All  that  he 
did  was  to  erect  a  big  khan  for  the  accommodation  of 
travellers,  some  miles  off  on  the  Adrianople  road. 

"  I  lived  there,**  said  Barreau,  "  on  that  wilderness, 
in  the  two  rooms  I  had  made,  like  Robinson  Crusoe  on 
his  lonely  island.  But  I  had  fewer  comforts  than 
Crusoe,  and  no  man  Friday.  When  I  could  not  pay 
the  poor  labourers,  they  all  ran  away.  I  and  the  dogs 
had  the  wilderness  all  to  ourselves.** 

About  two  years  ago  Keschid  became  Grand  Vizier, 
and  consequently  a  man  to  be  flattered,  conciliated,  and 
won  over  by  all  possible  means.  To  few  of  the  plun- 
derers of  government  could  his  friendship  and  support 
be  worth  a  higher  price  than  to  the  Baroutjee-Bashi 
and  all  the  Dadians.  Boghos  Dadian  offered  to  take 
the  farm  off  Keschid's  hands,  and  to  pay  him  for  it  an 
annual  rent  of  75,000  piastres,  or  ten  times  more  rent 
than  anybody  else  would  have  given  him  for  it     This 


390  TURKEY  MTD  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

pretty  bargain  was  concluded  within  a  montti  or  six 
weeks  after  Reschid's  elevation  to  the  first  post  in  the 
government  I  was  particular  as  to  the  date.  Both 
Barreau  and  his  wife  were  sure  it  was  within  six  weeks. 
When  Barreau  was  half-fancying  that  Reschid  would 
now  have  plenty  of  money  and  would  really  improve 
his  farm,  Boghos  Dadian  came  down  and  took  posses* 
sion,  turning  off  the  Frenchman,  and  putting  an  un- 
practised, unskilful,  ignorant  Armenian  in  his  place. 

Barreau  now  demanded  a  settlement  of  his  accounts. 
These  were  furiously  disputed.  They  made  it  out  that 
next  to  nothing  was  due  to  him.  He  had  paid  for  oil, 
beans,  bread,  and  other  rough  and  scanty  provisions  for 
the  labourers.  They  said  that  he  ought  not  to  have 
spent  so  much  money.  They  called  in  as  umpires  or 
judges  two  Turkish  farmers — friends  and  dependants 
both  of  Reschid  Pasha's  banker  and  Boghos  Dadian — 
and  these  upright  men  gave  it  against  the  Frenchman. 
Thus,  for  the  four  years  that  Barreau  served  this  honest, 
virtuous,  immaculate,  reforming  Reschid  Pasha,  his  gains 
did  not  amount  to  five  hundred  piastres  a-month !  The 
man  was  cheated  out  of  half  of  his  inadequate,  be^arly 
pay.  The  Armenian  manager  soon  let  the  little  im- 
provements he  had  made  go  to  the  devil.  The  vines 
were  torn  up  by  the  roots  or  entirely  neglected ;  the 
mulberry  plantations  were  destroyed,  the  ditches  were 
filled  up,  the  inclosing  dykes  were  broken  through  and 
through.  Boghos  would  grow  nothing  but  com  in  the 
old  Turkish  way,  and  his  man  did  not  even  know  how 
to  do  that.  Boghos  will  lose  by  all  this ;  but  the  coun- 
tenance of  the  Vizier  is  worth  the  75,000  piastres  a-year 
— and  a  vast  deal  more  I     A  more  palpable  bribe  has 


■  .<  ^^lii"^.:. 


Chap.  XXV.     INGRATITUDE  OF  RESCHTD  PASHA.  391 

seldom  been  given;  and  yet  the  thing  has  been  so 
snugly  done«  Hardly  anybody  at  Constantinople  knew 
a  word  about  it ;  and  should  the  story  be  bruited,  it 
will  be  pleaded  by  or  for  the  Vizier  that  the  high  cares 
of  state  did  not  allow  him  time  to  attend  to  agriculture 
and  private  affairs. 

The  lady,  who  was  also  a  native  of  Bui^ndy,  had 
not  long  been  Madame  Barreau.  Nine  or  ten  years 
ago  she  married,  at  Paris,  a  Greek  called  Costacki, 
who  was  then  Reschid  Pasha's  maitre-d'hdtel.  In  the 
summer  of  1839  the  sudden  death  of  Sultan  Mahmoud 
made  it  necessary  for  Reschid  to  go  in  all  haste  to  Con- 
stantinople. There  was  to  be  an  entirely  new  govern- 
ment— a  fresh  shuffling  of  the  cards ;  and  if  he  did  not 
cut  in  now,  he  might  be  a  ruined  man :  les  absents  ont 
taujours  tort  Having  no  money  at  Paris,  and  no  credit 
elsewhere,  he  applied  to  his  Greek  maitre-d'hdteL  Cos- 
tacki had  saved  about  forty  thousand  piastres,  and  his 
wife  had  a  like  sum  in  one  of  the  French  savings'-banks« 
They  gave  all  this  money  to  the  pasha.  He  promised 
to  repay  them  with  liberal  interest,  and  in  a  short  time. 
At  the  moment  his  gratitude  was  very  warm,  for  he 
thought  his  fate  depended  on  this  journey.  He  hurried 
to  Constantinople  by  way  of  Vienna.  After  a  time  he 
brought  the  Greek  and  his  French  wife  out  to  Turkey, 
and  planted  them  on  his  farm,  without  any  talk  of  pay- 
ing them  what  he  owed.  Costacki  understood  nothing 
of  farming,  but  he  was  to  learn ;  and  in  the  meantime 
he  could  act  as  overseer  of  accounts.  Both  he  and  his 
wife  were  very  unhappy.  They  did  not  dare  ask  the 
Pasha  for  their  money.  They  lived  in  this  miserable 
village  of  Ambarli  as  though  they  had  been  exiled  for 


mm 


392  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

some  crime.  No  salary  or  wages  of  any  kind  were 
paid  to  them.  At  last  they  grew  desperate,  and  de- 
manded their  money.  The  pasha  met  this  demand  by 
discharging  them  from  his  service.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  Barreau  arrived,  and  became  acquainted  with 
them.  Poor  Costacki  was  so  ill-advised,  and  so  ill- 
informed  of  the  deadly  climate  of  that  place,  that  he 
went  over  to  Tuzlar  (with  his  wife)  to  act  as  superin- 
tendent of  that  farm  for  Mr.  H .     Both  were  soon 

laid  up  with  malaria  fevers.  After  repeated  attacks 
Costacki  died,  and  his  wife  was  well  nigh  following  him. 
The  widow,  as  a  French  subject,  now  applied  to  M.  Cas- 
tagne,  the  French  consul.  With  interest  and  with 
wages  Reschid  Pasha's  debt  amounted  by  this  time  to 
150,000  piastres.  After  some  time,  when  hard  pressed 
by  the  consul,  the  pasha  referred  the  whole  matter  to 
his  Armenian  banker,  who  was  to  settle  the  claims  in 
the  best  manner  he  could.  The  banker  began  by  re- 
ducing the  debt  to  75,000  piastres,  vowing  that  the 
pasha  would  never  consent  to  pay  a  para  more.  With 
the  advice  of  her  consul  the  poor  widow  agreed  to  take 
this  sum,  and  to  give  a  receipt  in  full  of  all  demands. 
When  she  went  to  receive  payment  the  seraff  told  her 
that  she  must  take  diamonds  for  the  amount,  as  he  had 
no  money  to  give  her.  With  her  patience  quite  worn 
out  by  long  delays,  and  with  urgent  need  of  money,  the 
widow  at  last  took  the  diamonds.  When  she  came  to 
sell  them^  all  that  she  could  get  for  them  was  about 
35,000  piastres.  They  were  small,  low-priced  brilliants, 
which  would  hardly  have  met  with  a  sale  at  all  if  there 
had  not  been  a  marriage  in  the  Sultan's  family.  Me- 
hemet  Ali^  Capitan  Pasha,  of  whom  I  have  spoken  at 


mmmmmmmmmmiaa^mmtmmmmmm^i^'^mM^mmm^mmmmmmmm^i^t^mm^m^^mm^fm^ 


Chap.  XXV.    M.  BARRBAU'S  DISAPPOINTMENTS.  393 

some  length  in  a  preceding  chapter,  was  going  to  be 
married  to  one  of  the  Sultan's  sisters.  The  brilliants 
were  wanted  to  set  in  the  snuflF-boxes  and  other  toys 
which  are  so  profusely  distributed  on  such  occasions. 

"  I  got  from  the  pasha's  banker,"  said  the  poor  woman, 
"  less  money  than  I  myself  took  out  of  the  savings'-bank 
at  Paris,  and  lent  to  him  in  his  need."     Fran9ois  Bar- 
reau  married  the  widow,  his   countrywoman.      With 
400L  or  500/.  in  hand  he  could  have  done  very  well  in 
these  parts ;  but  old  Khosreff  Pasha  would  not  let  land 
to  a  Frank,  though  he  had  here  hundreds  upon  hun-> 
dreds  of  acres,  never  touched  by  plough  or  spade  since 
the  Turks  have  had  possession  of  the  country.     The 
slopes  of  these  hills  are  admirably  suited  to  the  culti- 
vation of  the  vine.     All  that  Barreau  had  been  able  to 
do  was  to  sub-hire  from  a  Greek  Rayah  two  small 
patches  of  vineyard.     The  wine  he  had  made  was  the 
best  we  had  tasted  in  European  Turkey.     He  said  that 
where  the  people  of  the  country  grew  one  bushel  of 
corn  he  could  easily  grow  two.     He  would  have  set  up 
a  tannery  at  Ambarli  if  he  could  have  procured  a  bit 
of  ground ;  but  Armenians  and  Turks  had  joined  in 
opposing  him  and  in  bullying  the  Greek  villagers,  who 
would  gladly  have  gone  into  that  new  industry.     They 
had  told  him  that  the  tanners  formed  an  important 
esnaff  or  guild,  whose  rights  must  not  be  invaded  by 
any  one,   and  least  of  all  by  a  foreigner.      "These 
people,"  said  the  Burgundian,  "  do  not  know  how  to 
tan  leather  properly :  I  would  have  taught  them.  Their 
gains  would  have  been  greater  than  mine ;  the  coimtry 
would  have  been  benefited.     But  it  appears  to  me  that 
this  government  will   neither  do  nor  let  do — its  ne 


394  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

veuient  ni  fairCj  ni  laisser  faire"  "  Thaty*'  said  I,  "  is 
a  lesson  we  have  been  learning  these  last  seven  months!" 

The  Tuzlar  fevers  had  thoroughly  deranged  the  poor 
woman's  liver  and  digestive  organs ;  she  was  as  yellow 
as  orange-peel,  and  the  sight  of  one  eye  was  seriously 
affected.  Barreau  had  several  times  thought  of  writing 
to  M.  Guizot,  but  he  had  been  deterred  by  his  modesty 
and  other  considerations.  Not  knowing,  as  yet,  that 
the  monarchy  of  Louis-Philippe  was  overthrown,  and 
that  M.  Guizot  was  a  fugitive  or  an  exile  in  England, 
I  advised  him  to  write  now,  and  give  to  that  best  of 
modern  French  statesmen  a  plain  narrative  of  the 
treatment  he  had  met  with.  I  thought  that  the  dis* 
graceful  facts  ought  to  be  made  known  in  France.  He 
said  he  would  think  about  it ;  I  offered  to  assist  him  in 
writing  the  letter ;  but  in  twelve  days  we  received  the 
news  of  the  February  revolution  I 

In  Fera  and  Galata  I  made  inquiries  about  M.  Bar* 
reau  and  his  wife  and  their  sad  story.  I  found  people 
who  were  well  acquainted  with  them — I  found  a  Frank 
who  had  seen  the  widow's  accounts,  and  who  had  acted 
as  broker  in  selling  the  brilliants  for  her.  Her  tale 
was  confirmed  in  every  particular,  and  everybody  that 
knew  her  and  her  present  husband  spoke  of  them  as 
most  honest,  truthful  persons.  Those  who  attempted 
to  excuse  Reschid  did  it  at  the  expense  of  his  Armenian 
sera£^  whom  they  described  as  the  most  brutal  and 
rapacious  of  his  class ;  but  in  a  great  part  of  the  nefa- 
rious proceedings  Beschid  had  no  intermediary  or  agent 
He  was  his  own  agent  when  he  borrowed  his  servant's 
money  at  Paris,  when  he  mystified  M.  Guizot,  when  he 
induced,  with  fair  promises,  M.  Barreau  to  come  out  to 


■■ 


Chap.  XXV.     FRENCH  AND  POLISH  CHIFTLIKS.  395 

Turkey,  and  when  he  concluded  his  bargain  with 
Boghos  Dadian,  and  allowed  Barreau  to  be  sent  adrift 
without  the  money  that  was  due  to  him.  If  this  is 
Beschid  Pasha's  private  honesty,  what  public  honesty 
can  be  expected  from  him  ? 

A  few  weeks  after  our  visit  to  Ambarli  the  honest 
Burgundian  contrived  to  bring  his  wife  into  Pera  for 
medical  advice.  He  called  upon  me,  sat  with  me  for 
an  hour,  and  repeated  the  whole  of  the  transactions  with 
the  Grand  Vizier.  I  had  taken  notes  of  all  that  he 
had  previously  told  me ;  there  was  no  variation  in  his 
present  account ;  I  have  rarely  met  with  a  man  whose 
word  inspired  so  much  confidence*  His  wife  was  con- 
sidered by  the  doctors  of  Pera  past  cure,  past  help ; 
she  could  do  nothing  but  deplore  the  day  that  she  had 
quitted  France,  and  sigh  to  get  back,  that  she  might  be 
buried  in  her  own  country  and  among  her  own  people. 

Some  years  ago  the  Lazarist  Fathers  of  Galata  had 
obtained  the  tacit  consent  of  the  Sultan  to  their  holding 
and  cultivating  an  extensive  tract  of  land  in  the  hill 
country  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus,  between 
that  strait  and  the  Black  Sea.  A  great  talk  had  been 
made  of  this  French  Catholic  chiftlik.  Our  attention 
had  been  first  drawn  to  it  by  John  Zohrab,  who  had 
been  told  that  the  Lazarists  had  settled  a  native  French 
colony  on  the  spot,  and  had  introduced  the  improved 
systems  of  agriculture. 

At  Pera  we  were  informed  that  the  Polish  refugees 
had  also  been  allowed  to  hold  a  large  farm  in  the  same 
comer  of  Asia  Minor,  and  that  they  too  were  culti- 
vating the  soil  with  great  success.  This  Polish  colony 
was  dressed  out  quite  in  romantic  colours :  we  should 


pw«P 


396  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

find  there  distinguished  officers  who  had  fought  and 
bled  for  Polish  liberty  in  1831,  and  elegant,  delicate, 
refined  ladies  who  shared  in  the  exile  and  cheered  the 
toils  of  their  husbands.  Although  the  two  places  were 
so  near  to  the  capital,  I  could  not  find  anybody  that 
had  ever  visited  them.  People  only  repeated  what 
they  had  heard  or  what  they  had  dreamed.  These 
Levantines  have  little  curiosity  of  the  sort,  and  then, 
inland  travelling,  however  short  the  distance,  is  so  very 
inconvenient  and  difficult.  There  are  men,  born  in  the 
place,  who  have  passed  all  their  lives  in  Pera  and 
Galata,  and  who  know  only  the  Bosphorus  which  they 
can  ascend  and  descend  comfortably  in  caiques,  and  the 
roads  to  Therapia,  Buyuk-dere,  and  the  village  of  Bel- 
grade.    We  resolved  to  go  over  to  the  two  chifUiks. 

The  state  of  the  weather  several  times  defeated  our 
project;  but  at  last,  on  the  10th  of  April,  we  made  a 
fair  start  from  Dolma-Baghche  at  1 1  a.m.,  in  company 

with  L P.  S         ,  and  A Effendi,  the  choicest 

of  Turks,  and  one  of  the  wittiest  and  pleasantest  of  men. 
We  landed  at  the  valley  of  the  "  Sweet  Waters  of 
Asia,*'  and  loitered  there  for  an  hour  under  the  Sultan's 
kiosk,  in  vain  expectation  of  seeing  a  Pole  who  was  to 
bring  us  horses.  Walking  down  the  bank  of  the  Bos- 
phorus to  Kandelli,  we  found  in  that  village  the  Pole, 
the  horses,  and  a  Bosniak  Koman  Catholic  priest,  who 
acted  as  chaplain  to  the  colony.  We  had  a  charming 
ride  up  the  Sweet  Waters  valley.  Having  the  Giant's 
Mount  on  our  left,  and  the  broad,  green-wooded  sides 
of  the  Alam-Dagh  on  our  right,  we  crossed  several 
ridges  of  considerable  hills,  with  charming  pastoral  val- 
leys between.    Two  of  these  valleys,  with  groves  of 


mamf^^mmma^'mmmmmmmmmmmmii'mmm^SSm^ 


Chap.  XXV.    ESTATE  OF  THE  LAZARIST  FATHERS.  397 

hazel-nuts  growing  by  the  sides  of  a  mountain  stream, 
were  of  uncommon  loveliness.  The  well-sheltered 
sward  was  pranked  with  wild  flowers;  the  hill-sides 
were  covered  with  arbutus,  dwarf  myrtle,  wild  thyme, 
lavender,  and  other  odoriferous  plants.  We  passed 
much  excellent  corn-land,  but,  except  two  chiftliks 
falling  fast  to  ruins,  we  did  not  see  a  human  habitation. 
After  leaving  the  valley  of  the  Sweet  Waters,  where  some 
Turks  were  making  tiles,  flower-pots,  and  earthen  tubes, 
and  a  good  many  Greeks  were  working  in  fields  and 
gardens,  we  scarcely  met  a  living  being.  The  solitude 
and  silence  were  awful.  We  went  along  very  leisurely, 
dismounting  and  walking  a  good  part  of  the  way  on 
foot  At  5  P.M.  we  were  on  the  Lazarists'  estate,  but 
could  see  no  sign  of  improvement,  or  scarcely  any  sign 
of  tillage.  At  5.15  we  reached  their  chiftlik,  in  a 
charming  green  pastoral  hollow,  surrounded  by  hills 
and  woods,  from  which  plenteous,  sparkling  rills  and 
streams  were  then  running.  A  gentle  bleating  of 
flocks,  and  a  frolicking  of  lambs,  chasing  one  another 
instead  of  following  their  sedate  dams  to  the  well-pro- 
tected mandra,  and  the  sound  of  a  distant  cow-horn, 
completed  the  pastoral  character  of  the  place  with  their 
*^  pastorali  accenti."  But  the  farm  buildings  were  mean 
and  poor  enough.  There  were  but  few  inclosed  fields, 
and  these  few  were  inclosed,  not  with  ditch  and  plea- 
sant hedge-row,  but  with  rude,  perishable  wattling. 
Very  little  com  was  grown ;  not  one  agricultural  im- 
provement was  introduced.  We  saw  one  good  French 
plough  in  the  stable-yard,  but  it  was  broken.  A  few 
Bulgarians  had  been  turning  up  the  little  ground  that 
was  tilled  with  barbarous  Turkish  ploughs.     Here  was 


398  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

another  specimen  of  European  model  farming  in 
Turkey  I  The  farm  was  little  more  than  a  sheep-walk 
— ^the  whole  aspect  of  the  place  was  essentially  pastoral. 
The  most  important  feature  was  the  mandra  ibr  sheep 
and  goats.  This  was  well  walled  in,  the  neighboiiring 
country  abounding  with  wolves.  Within  this  inclosure 
was  a  mean  white  house,  which  serves  to  lodge  the  holy 
brothers  when  they  come  hither  from  Galata  or  Be- 
bek ;  and  a  part  of  this  house  was  set  aside  as  a  chapel 
or  mass-house^  but  mass  could  be  said  only  when  a 
Lazarist  was  here.  At  one  end  of  this  building  was  a 
small  church  bell,  a  privilege  rarely  allowed  to  Chris- 
tians in  this  country.  Also  within  the  same  inclosure 
was  a  meaner  and  a  lower  house,  wherein  were  lodged 
three  lay-brothers,  the  only  Franks  that  were  on  the 
farm,  the  labourers  and  shepherds  being  rude  Bulga- 
rians and  few  in  number.  We  were  received  by  two 
of  these  brothers,  common  men  from  the  south  of 
France,  mere  farm-servants,  who  fancied  that  they  had 
had  a  religious  call.  They  were  weary  of  their  soli- 
tude and  glad  to  see  us.  They  invited  us  to  stay  the 
night,  and,  having  nothing  better  to  give,  they  gave  us 
some  sour  bread,  sour  wine,  and  very  good  raki.  One 
of  them  said  that  raki  was  the  only  good  thing  to  be 
got  in  these  parts.  He  looked  as  if  he  frequently  com- 
forted  himself  with  it ;  his  nose  was  as  red  as  ruddle, 
his  Proven9al  patois  was  scarcely  intelligible.  Their 
stock  of  sheep  and  lambs  was  now  about  200,  and  that 
of  goats  and  kids  about  230.  There  was  soon  to  be  a 
grand  reduction  of  lambs  and  kids,  as  the  Easter  season 
was  close  at  hand.  The  Lazarists  would  feast  on  them, 
and  make  acceptable  presents  of  them  to  their  friends 


Chap.  XXV.  POLISH  FARM.  399 

and  penitents  at  Pera  and  Galata.  A  Paschal  lamb  from 
the  farm  of  the  holy  brotherhood  is  held  in  great  re- 
pute— their  savoury  mutton,  fed  on  sweet,  short,  thymy 
pastures,  is  thought  to  have  an  additional  flavour  of 
holiness.  On  the  hill-side  a  little  above  the  mandra 
stood  another  small  white  house,  which  was  occupied 
by  the  Sisters  of  Charity  when  they  were  drawn  in 
arubas  by  slow  oxen  to  this  solitude.  They  came  very 
seldom  ;  none  but  the  toughest  of  the  sisterhood  could 
stand  the  terrible  jolting  of  the  journey  across  the  hills. 
Boad  there  was  none. 

Sending  round  our  horses  by  a  rough,  rocky  path, 
we  took  a  more  direct  way  across  the  hills  to  the 
Polish  farm,  which  we  now  learned  was  only  a  part 
of  the  Lazarist  chiftlik,  ceded  to  the  Poles  by  the 
priests.  We  reached  the  house  of  the  Polish  bailifl^ 
or  superintendent,  at  about  6.30  p.m.,  as  the  setting 
sun  was  shining  on  the  woods  of  Alam  Dagh.  The 
house  was  a  plain,  small  building,  in  the  fashion  of 
the  country,  with  white-washed  walls  inside  and  out. 
There  was,  however,  one  great  winter  comfort — a  good 
fire-place  in  every  room.  The  elevation  being  consi- 
derable, the  weather  is  very  severe  in  winter.  •  The 
bailiff  was  a  plain,  rough,  soldier-like  man,  who  might 
have  been  at  most  a  serjeant-major.  As  for  the  noble 
exiles,  the  general  officers,  with  their  interesting  ladies, 
they  were  all  boshl  Of  men  we  found  this  rough 
Serjeant,  and  thirteen  common  soldiers,  who  were  all 
deserters  from  the  Rvssian  army  of  the  Caucasus. 
They  had  fled  into  Circassia,  and  from  Circassia  they 
had  got  into  Turkey.  The  interesting  ladies  dwindled 
down  into  four  or  five  Greeks  of  the  country,  of  the 


m 


400  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

very  poorest  and  lowest  class,  who  had  married  so 
many  of  the  deserters.  On  a  line  with  the  bailiff's 
house  was  another  of  similar  size  and  construction, 
wherein  dwelt  the  Bosniak  priest  and  another  man,  a 
sort  of  under-bailiff.  We  dined  and  slept  with  the 
head  man.  We  were  tired,  and  slept  too  soundly  to 
be  much  tormented  by  bugs  or  fleas,  although  we  saw 
signs  of  their  being  numerous  about  the  place. 

At  an  early  hour  of  the  following  morning  we  walked 
over  &e  farm,  which  was  not  even  so  much  a  farm  as 
the  Lazarist  chiftlik.  We  saw  the  same  rude  sort  of 
wattle  inclosures,  the  same  ploughs,  the  same  scarcity  of 
tillage,  and  everywhere  a  greater  air  of  slovenliness  and 
neglect.  The  Poles,  however,  have  only  been  in  pos- 
session two  years,  whereas  the  Lazarists  have  been 
farmers  for  ten  years.  The  Polish  houses  were  rather 
better  than  those  of  most  Turkish  villages.  The 
married  men  had  larger,  the  unmarried  smaller  cot- 
tages, but  the  best  of  these  cottages  had  only  one 
room,  with  a  barejearthen  floor,  which  served  for  all 
purposes.  We  entered  two,  and  saw  in  each  a  woman 
and  a  little  infant,  a  cross  between  Pole  and  Greek. 
The  women  very  reverently  kissed  our  hands.  The 
men,  who  had  been  serfe  until  they  became  soldiers, 
had  exactly  the  appearance  of  Russian  serfs,  not  being 
distinguishable  from  them  either  in  look  or  in  de- 
meanour, in  manners  or  in  language.  As  these  men 
are,  so  is  the  mass  of  the  Polish  population  at  home. 
I  thought  of  poor  Tom  Campbell  and  of  shrieking 
Polish  liberty  I  They  had  among  them  all  fourteen 
cows,  four  miserable  horses,  and  hardly  any  sheep  or 
goats.     In  some  small  garden  patches  they  seemed  to 


mtf^^mmmamm 


Chap.  XXV.  POLISH  FARM.  401 

be  growing  only  leeks  and  onions.  The  fiirm  did  not 
yet  support  itself;  the  people  could  not  live  without 
occasional  alms  dealt  out  from  the  Polish  fund.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  they  were  not  taking  the  course 
proper  to  make  it  pay.  Though  pleasant  enough,  the 
Polish  part  of  this  property  was  not  so  pretty  and 
pastoral  as  the  other;  the  hills  were  comparatively 
bare  and  rugged,  but  there  was  some  charming  wood- 
land towards  the  north-east  edge,  and  the  wooded 
slopes  of  the  Alam  Dagh  showed  off  finely  on  the 
south.  In  all  this  jutting  promontory,  wherever  the 
valleys  and  hollows  were  well  sheltered  from  the 
north  wind  and  the  cutting  blasts  of  the  Black  Sea, 
there  were  beautiful  flowering  shrubs,  some  of  them 
now  getting  into  bloom.  The  arbutus  and  the  Daphne 
laurel  were  very  common.  The  flowering  heaths  were 
beautiiul,  but  not  much  varied.  The  air  was  strongly 
perfumed  with  aromatic  plants ;  bees  were  everywhere 
on  the  wing,  or  at  their  work.  The  Poles  had  set 
up  two  or  three  hives.  They  ought  to  set  up  two  or 
three  hundred.  They  might  procure  honey  in  im- 
mense quantities.  The  bailiff  and  the  priest  said  they 
would  think  about  it;  but  their  heads  were  full  of 
the  revolutions,  and  every  man  was  longing  to  get 
back  to  his  own  country.  They  had  a  valuable  re- 
source during  a  good  part  of  the  year,  for  the  country 
abounded  with  game ;  and  wild  hogs  and  deer  came 
down  in  droves  from  the  neighbouring  forests  and 
mountains.  They  and  the  Lazarist  lay-brothers,  with 
their  Bulgarians,  had  all  the  wide  country  to  them- 
selves; they  had  no  near  neighbours,  Mussulmans  or 
Christians.     The  Turks,   who  dwelt  a  good  way  ofl^ 

VOL.  II.  2  D 


402  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXV. 

in  the  little  villages  round  the  Alam  Dagh,  rarely  came 
near  them,  and  never  caused  them  any  disturbance. 

On  the  4th  of  June,  while  we  were  staying  at 
Buyuk-dere,  we  went  to  visit  an  Armenian  chiftlik  at 
the  head  of  the  Great  Valley,  dose  on  the  edge  of 
the  forest  of  Belgrade.  Our  party  was  reinforced  by 
the  worthy  American  Elchee,  the  American  consul, 
and  Mr.  N.  Davis.  We  heard  a  good  deal  of  this 
farm,  which  belonged  to  a  member  of  the  wealthy 
Catholic  Armenian  family  of  the  Billijikjees,  and  the 
owner,  whom  we  had  ^  met  on  board  the  steam-boat 
which  came  every  summer  evening  up  the  Bosphorus, 
had  invited  me  to  visit  it  The  house  stood  on  the  top 
of  a  steep  hill,  not  far  from  the  Turkish  aqueduct 
which  spans  the  valley  of  Buyukdere :  though  only  of 
wood,  and  externally  rather  shabby,  it  was  a  spacious, 
airy,  and — for  summer  time — a  pleasant  and  commo- 
dious habitation.  The  seraff  received  us  with  much 
politeness.  We  walked  over  his  improvements.  On 
the  side  of  the  steep  hill,  which  sloped  to  the  valley, 
and  faced  the  south,  he  had  introduced  the  terrace 
system,  and  (having  abundance  of  water)  a  very  good 
system  of  irrigation.  Some  of  the  terraces  were  broad 
and  fine,  and  well  supported.  He  had  planted  some 
good  vineyards  and  about  25,000  mulberry-trees. 
Lower  down  he  had  sown  some  of  Dr.  Davis's  white 
American  maize,  which  was  thriving  prodigiously  and 
was  nearly  ready  to  be  gathered.  Several  fields  of 
wheat  and  barley  were  strongly  inclosed,  and  there  was 
a  large  and  fine  kitchen-garden  stocked  with  more 
variety  than  ever  we  saw  in  the  country.  The  whole 
property,  which  had  recendy  been  purchased  for  a  very 


Chap.  XXV.    ARMENIAN  CHIFTLIK  NEAR  BELGRADE.      408 

small  sum — less,  I  believe,  than  1000?.  sterling — in- 
cluding bare  hills,  downs,  and  woodlands,  was  said  to 
be  twenty  miles  in  circumference.  Of  this  not  above 
twenty  acres  of  arable  land  were  improved,  and  I 
should  think  that  not  more  than  sixty  acres  were  under 
any  cultivation.  The  Billijikjee,  however,  contem- 
plated an  extension  of  his  agricultural  operations,  and 
he  had  been  freely  spending  his  money  on  what  he  had 
already  done,  having  become  convinced  that  capital 
was  as  requisite  in  farming  as  in  trade  or  banking,  and 
that  money  properly  invested  ip  agriculture  must,  in  a 
country  like  Turkey,  give  most  profitable  results.  He 
was  too  conspicuous  and  too  strong  a  man  to  be  ex- 
posed to  the  unfair  vexations  and  extortions  of  the  tax- 
gatherers  and  farmers  of  the  revenue,  and  he  had  a 
market  for  his  produce  close  at  hand  in  Constantinople, 
with  a  water-carriage  to  that  capital.  As  yet  it  was 
certainly  but  a  small  matter,  yet  this  was  the  best — in 
my  opinion  incomparably  the  best — attempt  made  at 
agricultural  improvement  anywhere  near  Constantinople. 
Dr.  Davis  visited  the  chifllik  shortly  after,  and  came 
to  the  same  conclusion.  We  revisited  the  chifUik  on 
the  6th  of  June,  in  the  course  of  a  pleasant  excursion 
with  Mr.  N.  D to  the  magnificent  bendts  or  reser- 
voirs in  the  forest  of  Belgrade,  and  were  again  pleased 
to  see  the  good  order  which  prevailed  and  the  hearty 
industry  of  the  farm-labourers. 

Since  the  dearth  in  the  West,  which  had  created  so 
great  and  sudden  a  demand  for  the  ^^  bread-stufis "  of 
the  East,  several  of  the  Armenian  capitalists  had  pur- 
chased farms ;  but  they  had  not  an  idea  of  improving 
the  agriculture :  they  bought  immense  estates  for  sums 

2d2 


404  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXY. 

which  in  England,  or  in  France>  or  in  the  plains  of 
Italy,  would  not  pay  for  a  few  acres,  and  they  left  the 
farming — as  it  had  been !  The  ground  was  scratched, 
never  manured  ;  the  seed  was  thrown  into  the  soil,  and 
Nature  or  Providence  was  to  do  the  rest  But  a  far 
more  general  employment  of  Armenian  capital  was  in 
the  shape  of  loans  to  the  ]^oor,  ignorant,  wretched 
cultivators  of  the  soil ;  and  these  loans,  even  here,  close 
to  the  capital,  bore  such  enormous  interest^  that  the 
cultivator  could  never  raise  his  head  under  the  dead 
weight.  Wheat,  yellow  maize,  barley,  beans,  had  been 
selling  at  rare  prices,  but  we  could  not  discover,  in  any 
one  place,  that  the  farmers  were  the  better  for  it,  or 
that  the  homesteads  or  villages  had  improved.  Many 
of  the  villages  within  two  hours'  ride  of  the  capital  were 
as  hungry  and  forlorn  as  those  we  had  seen  near 
Kutayah.  If  any  slight  signs  of  prosperity  were  to  be 
found,  they  were  to  be  sought  for  not  among  the  Turks, 
but  among  the  Greeks.  If  there  was  any  perceptible 
difference  in  the  style  of  farming,  it  was  rather  in  favour 
of  the  people  of  Asia  Minor  than  of  these  near  neigh- 
bom^  to  the  capital.  Here,  as  I  have  said  before  (and 
the  fact  must  be  often  repeated  to  convince  those  who 
have  not  travelled  in  the  country),  the  cultivated  fields 
were  but  as  specks  in  a  desert ;  and,  unless  you  ascended 
the  BosphoruS)  which  has  some  cultivated  strips  on 
either  side,  you  plunged  into  a  bare,  treeless  desert  the 
moment  you  quitted  the  capital.  Much  of  the  soil 
close  to  Constantinople  is  sterile  and  bad — some  of  it 
incurably  bad — ^but  there  are  vast  tracts  of  good  corn- 
land,  and  still  vaster  tracts  that  might  be  rendered  ex- 
cellent by  a  judicious  plantation  of  trees  and  a  slight 


«.»]g-.»^*^»^-^W 


Chap.  XXV.  TURKISH  GARDENS.  405 

attention  to  the  economy  of  water.  These  utterly  de- 
solate regions  were  once  covered  with  farms  and  villas 
— not  merely  to  the  heights  of  Daoud  Pasha,  but 
onward  as  far  as  Selyvria,  and  thence  into  the  bosom  of 
now  desolate  Thrace.  They  are  gone — all  gone ! — but 
in  our  walks  and  rides  and  journeys  we  constantly 
came  upon  proofs  oMheiv  having  been,  and  upon 
waters,  in  subterranean  conduits,  now  running  to  waste, 
stagnating  in  hollows,  and  engendering  malaria,  which 
proved  how  great  an  attention  the  ancient  occupants  of 
the  soil  had  paid  to  the  proper  supply  of  the  precious 
fluid,  and  how  abundant  had  been  their  means  of  irri* 
gation. 

Horticulture  and  floriculture  are  scarcely  in  a  more 
advanced  stage  than  agriculture.  The  splendid  descrip- 
tions of  Turkish  gardens  to  be  found  in  some  books  are 
mere  "  travellers'  tales/'  There  are  beautiful  groves, 
fine,  natural  ascending  terraces,  admirable  sites  for 
gardens,  but  gardens  there  are  hardly  any.  The  Ser- 
raglio  itself,  though  so  picturesque  and  beautiful  with- 
out— when  seen  at  a  certain  distance — is  an  ill-arranged, 
slovenly,  mean  thing  within.  Mr.  Thackeray  has  given 
the  shortest  and  best  account  of  it — the  Serraglio  is  a 
Vauxhall  seen  by  daylight!  The  villas  on  the  Bos- 
phorus  owe  nearly  all  their  charms  to  their  cypress 
groves  and  other  plantations.  Some  of  them  are  exceed- 
ingly beautiful,  though  they  cannot  be  called  gardens^ 


406 


TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY. 


Chap.  XXVI. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


' 


The  Slare-trade,  and  its  activity  —  Phbw  for  selling  Black  Slaves  — 
A  Bargain  — ■  Constant  Importation  and  Sale  of  Circassians  —  News- 
paper Advertisements  of  Slaves  on  sale  —  The  Steam-boats  of  Christian 
Powers  carry  Slaves,  white  and  black  —  The  English  imjustly  accused 
—  Fearful  Mortality  of  Black  Slaves  —  Slaves  murdered  by  Turkish 
Masters  —  Fanaticism  and  Insolence  of  Black  Slaves  —  Circassian 
Slave-dealers  at  Tophana  and  near  the  Burned  Column  —  Prices  of 
White  Slaves  —  Antiquity  of  this  Trade  —  Domestic  Institutions  of 
the  Circassians  —  Demoralizing  effect  on  the  Turks  of  this  Circassian 
Slavery  —  The  Mother  of  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  a  Circassian  Slave  — 
Khosreff  Pasha  and  Halil  Pasha  —  An  Appeal  to  the  Abolitionists. 

We  had  ocular  demonstration  and  complete  confirma- 
tion of  the  accuracy  of  the  report  about  the  slave-trade 
as  made  to  us  on  our  first  arrival  at  Constantuiople  by 
the  French  travellers.  The  trade  in  slaves,  both  white 
and  black,  was  uncommonly  active. 

The  great  Yessir  Bazary  or  slave-market  was  in- 
deed closed  by  order  of  the  Sultan  in  1846,  but  slaves 
are  publicly  sold  in  other  places.  The  poor  Nubians 
have  indeed  been  losers  or  sufferers  by  the  change :  in 
the  old  market  there  was  at  least  plenty  of  elbow-room, 
but  now  they  are  huddled  together  in  confined  apart- 
ments or  in  miserable  cellars.  One  of  these  semi- 
subterraneous  dens — and  now  the  most  frequented  of 
the  slave-marts — was  close  to  the  grand  mosque  of  the 
Suleimanieh.  There,  six  days  in  the  week,  the  traffic 
in  black  human  flesh  might  be  seen  in  full  activity — 
the  Arab  sellers  exposing  their  live  goods,   and  the 


^^''^^'^^•''^^^^^^'^^^^^^^^'•'^^mmm^mmmmmmKmmmm^ma^mmt^mm^^^m^^mmitmmim'   ~~>'     -w^ 


Chap.  XXVI.    PUBLIC  SALE  OF  BLACK  SLAVES.  407 

Turks  chaffering  with  them  for  the  prices.     The  slaves 
were  brought  out  one  by  one  through  a  low,  narrow, 
dingy  door,  something  like  a  trap-door.     One  morning, 
as  I  was  taking  an  indirect  road  towards  Mr.  Sang's 
house  near  the  Seven  Towers,  I  witnessed  the  whole  of 
a   very  long  examination  and  bargain   at  the   Sulei- 
manieh,  the  purchaser  being  a  starch,  yellow-faced  old 
ailema.     At  first  the  old  sinner  thought  he  would  buy 
a  black  boy,  but  then  he  changed  his  mind  and  deter- 
mined to  buy  a  black  girl.     Another  low,  dark  door 
was  opened,  and,  one  by  one,  about  a  dozen  females, 
some  young,  some  middle-aged,  and  all  in  a  state  of 
nearly  perfect  nudity,  were  brought  out  to  the  light  of 
day,  shivering  in  the  cold.      The  man  of  the  mosque 
examined  two   of  them  very  minutely,  much   in  the 
manner  that  a  ^^  knowing  one "  would  eye  and  handle  a 
horse  before  purchasing.      He  fi:sed  upon  one  of  the 
two,  a  girl  from  Nubia  or  Sennaar,  but  the  price  was 
not  fixed  so  easily.     The  sharp-visaged  Arab  dealer 
asked  1200  piastres  for  her.      "My  lamb,*'  said  the 
ailema,  "  she  is  a  mere  child,  and  not  worth  the  money." 
"  My  soul,"  said  the  dealer,  "she  will  grow  older,  and 
she  is  strong  and  well-proportioned."     "  Nine  hundred 
grushes,"  said  the  buyer,     Yokl  No  I   quoth  the  old 
seller.      The  ailema  muttered  a  few  bac^ums  and 
mashallahs,  went  up  a  flight  of  steps  into  the  court- 
yard of  the  mosque,  took   two  or  three  short  turns 
there,  and  then  went  into  a  coffee-house  and  smoked  a 
pipe.      But  he  soon  came  back  to  the  mouth  of  the 
slave  den,  and  renewed  his  chaffering  with  the  Arab. 
The  black  girl,  who  had  been  sent  back  to  her  hole, 
was  again  brought  out,  and  in  the  end  she  was  sold  to 


t^t^m      I    1  ■■ 


408  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXVI. 

the  old  Turk  for  1000  piastres.  The  poor  creature  then 
drew  a  bit  of  blanket  about  her,  and  marched  off,  bare- 
footed, over  the  horrible  rough  stones,  being  preceded  by 
a  man-servant,  and  followed  by  her  new  master. 

Except  when  they  were  smuggled  in,  a  duty  upon 
slaves  continued  to  be  levied  at  the  Stamboul  custom- 
house. The  newspaper  in  the  Turkish  language,  pub- 
lished by  government,  and  entirely  directed  by  persons 
salaried  by  the  Porte,  regularly  admitted  advertise- 
ments about  the  sale  of  slaves.  Whites  were  adver- 
tised as  well  as  blacks.  In  the  month  of  February  Mr. 
Sang  gave  me  this  literal  translation  from  the  Turkish 
paper,  which  had  just  appeared:- 

^*  This  is  to  give  notice,  that  at  the  Suleimanieh,  in 
the  Theriaki-market,  there  is  to  be  sold  for  10,000 
piastres  a  Circassian  nurse.  Inquire  at  the  office  of 
Achmet  Agha,  Dealer  in  Slaves,  and  Chief  of  the 
Rope-dancers." 

Public  announcements  like  this  were  very  common. 
On  our  first  arrival  I  had  been  confidently  assured  that 
the  English  flag  in  the  Black  Sea  often  waved  over  decks 
crowded  with  Circassian  slaves,  and  that  the  com- 
manders of  the  steamers  of  our  Peninsular  and  Oriental 
Company,  running  to  Trebizond,  had  repeatedly — and 
indeed  commonly — brought  down  white  slaves  to  be 
sold  in  the  capital.  Upon  careful  inquiry  I  found 
that  this,  if  not  utterly  false,  was  monstrously  exag- 
gerated. At  first  those  vessels  brought  down  a  few 
such  slaves ;  but  Sir  Stratford  Canning  called  the  re- 
sident agents  of  the  Company  before  him,  and  warned 
them  of  the  unlawfulness  and  danger  of  such  proceed- 
ings.    The  strictest  orders  were  given  to  the  captains 


Iwi^i 


Chap.  XXVI.    VINDICATION  OF  ENGLISH  STEAMERS.        409 

to  embark  no  slaves  whatever.  Yet  I  would  not  be  so 
bold  as  to  assert  that  no  slaves  have  been  brought  down 
in  our  steamers  since  then,  or  even  that  some  slaves  are 
not  now  brought  down  at  every  trip  they  make.  Where 
the  women  are  all  yashmacked,  muffled  up,  and  kept 
apart  —  where  men  must  not  approach  them  —  the 
captains  cannot  tell  who  are  slaves  and  who  free 
women.  It  cannot  enter  their  heads  to  take  a  pasha, 
ayan,  or  other  great  Turk,  and  refuse  a  passage  to 
his  harem.  These  harems  are  sure  to  contain  some 
purchased  slaves ;  but  they  are  the  great  men*s  wives  or 
concubines,  or  young  fellows  who  figure  as  domestic 
servants.  Although  polygamy  is  on  the  decline,  some 
of  the  harems  and  retinues  are  still  numerous ;  and  thus 
a  bevy  of  veiled  young  Circassians,  on  their  way  to  be 
sold  into  slavery,  may  easily  be  made  to  pass  as  some 
great  Turk*s  harem  going  to  Constantinople.  I  was 
also  told  that  false  teskeres,  or  passports,  for  young 
Circassian  girls  and  boys  were  made  out,  not  only  by 
the  Turkish  authorities,  but  also  by  some  of  the  vice- 
consuls  of  Christian  powers.  To  acknowledged  slave- 
dealers  and  their  living  merchandise  our  vice-consuls 
and  captains  certainly  refused  passage.  The  Austrian 
steam-boats  (all  manned  and  commanded  by  Italians  or 
Dalmatians)  carried,  without  any  scruple,  the  passengers 
refused  by  the  English ;  and  whether  they  came  from 
the  Black  Sea,  or  up  from  the  Archipelago,  these  boats 
rarely  arrived  at  Constantinople  without  having  slaves, 
white  or  black,  on  board.  I  have  seen  some  of  them, 
from  Egypt  or  Syria,  enter  the  Golden  Horn,  with  their 
decks  crowded  by  black  slaves,  and  looking  like  regu- 
lar slavers,   that  would  assuredly  have  been  captured 


410  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXVI. 

and  condemned  if,  instead  of  being  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean, they  had  only  been  found  outside  the  Straits  of 
Gibraltar.  Such  was  the  case  in  the  summer  of  1848. 
I  believe  that  the  present  Emperor  of  Austria  might 
easily  be  induced  to  forbid  the  traffic ;  but  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  Turks  and  Arabs  will  ever  relinquish 
the  trade :  if  you  shut  them  out  of  your  steamers,  they 
will  use  their  own  crazy,  dangerous  craft ;  if  you  stop 
them  by  sea,  they  will  send  their  slaves — white  and 
black — by  land;  if  you  force  an  anti-slavery  treaty 
upon  the  Sultan,  it  will  be  evaded  and  broken  every  day. 
The  Vassitei  Tidjaret,  the  beautiful  steamer  in  which 
we  had  made  our  voyage  from  England,  was  chiefly  em- 
ployed by  the  Turkish  company  to  run  in  the  Black  Sea, 
and  I  believe  that  she  never  came  down  from  Trebizond 
without  having  white  slaves  on  board.  The  engineers 
of  that  vessel  were  all  Englishmen,  who  were  fami- 
liarizing their  mind  with  the  traffic  I  should  think 
that  these  men  could  be  reached  by  the  arm  of  English 
law.  Are  they  not,  according  to  our  statutes,  engaged 
in  piracy  ?  As  British  subjects  in  Turkey,  they  are 
amenable  not  to  Mussulman,  but  to  ambassadorial  and 
consular  authority.  Our  ambassador  might  seize  them, 
and  send  them  home  for  trial.  If  we  imprison  and  inflict 
hard  penalties  on  foreigners  for  carrying  black  slaves, 
we  are  surely  bound  to  prevent  Englishmen  from  aid- 
ing so  materially  in  the  transport  of  white  slams.  One 
of  the  engineers  told  me  that  at  their  last  trip  they  had 
brought  down  a  good  many  slaves.  As  for  the  captain, 
or  skipper,  he  was  only  a  Perote  Frank,  and  therefore 
he  thought  no  more  of  carrying  white  slaves  than  of 
carrying  Trebizond  broad  beans,  or  any  other  kind  of 


r^i   m^  =r 


Chap.  XXVI.    LIES  OF  THE  FRENCH  JOURNALISTS.  411 

cargo :    he  could  never    understand    our  scruples  — 
"Turk,"  said  he,  "  must  have  his  vomans — and  his  boys." 

To  destroy  slavery,  you  must  uproot  Turkish  so- 
ciety ;  for  of  that  system  it  is  an  integral  part 

On  the  2 1st  of  February  Mr.  Ford,  one  of  the  managers 
for  the  Oriental  and  Peninsular  Company,  showed  me 
a  paragraph  of  a  letter,  dated  February  15  th,  and 
signed  by  F,  J.  Stephens,  our  vice-consul  at  Trebiaond, 
and  agent  there  for  the  same  Company : — 

"  The  Tiger  8  way-bill  would  have  been  much  better, 
but  I  refused  seventy  Circassians  who  had  slaves  with 
them." 

This  was  the  paragraph.  According  to  Mr.  Ford 
the  English  Company  lost  100/.  by  this  refusal,  and 
the  Circassians  and  their  slaves  would  be  presently 
brought  down  under  the  Austrian  flag.  He  further 
informed  me  that  the  Company's  splendid  new  iron 
steamer,  the  "  Sultan,"  which  had  just  come  in  from 
the  Archipelago,  had  refused,  at  the  Dardanelles,  250 
black  slaves,  for  whose  passage  1 25/.  would  have  been 
paid,  and  that  these  slaves  would  all  be  brought  up  by 
the  next  Austrian  steamer.  As  a  zealous  servant  of 
the  Company  he  sorely  begrudged  this  loss  of  225/., 
and  he  seemed  to  think  that  if  Austrians  made  money 
in  that  way,  Englishmen  ought  not  to  be  prohibited 
from  doing  the  same.  He  complained  that  England 
got  the  blame  without  the  profit ;  that  one  of  the  Fera 
newspapers,  salaried  by  the  Forte,  was  always  naming 
the  English  instead  of  the  Austrian  steamers  as  the 
carriers  of  slaves,  and  that  these  French  journalists  had 
disregarded  his  repeated  denials  and  remonstrances. 
This  I  can  well  believe,  as  these  hired  newspaper-men 


412  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXVI. 

seldom  let  slip  an  opportunity  of  slighting  or  disparag- 
ing England.  I  have  myself  seen  in  their  columns 
announcements  that  our  steamers  had  brought  great 
number  of  slaves  to  the  market,  when  they  had  brought 
none,  or  only  a  few  that  passed  as  servants;  and  I 
never  saw  any  such  announcement  when  an  Austrian 
came  in,  and  publicly  landed  a  whole  cargo  of  slaves. 
A  prosecution  for  libel  had  been  thought  of:  but  how 
form  a  court  ?  how  rely  upon  law  in  a  country  where, 
virtually,  there  is  no  law?  how  assess  damages  and 
command  payment  of  them  ?  The  libels,  if  they  con- 
tinue, are  to  be  stopped  only  by  a  firm  remonstrance  of 
Sir  Stratford  Canning  to  the  Porte.  The  Turks  sub- 
sidize those  French  scribblers,  and  ought  to  be  held 
accountable  for  their  misdoings.  It  was  generally  be- 
lieved that  the  said  journalists  were  bribed  or  paid, 
turn  and  turn  about,  by  nearly  every  foreign  legation 
except  the  British. 

Many  black  slaves  are  brought  up  from  Egypt,  but 
I  believe  a  great  many  more  are  imported  from  Tripoli 
and  Tunis.  The  mortality  which  takes  place  among 
them,  on  their  journeys  from  the  interior  of  Africa  to 
the  coast,  is  said  to  be  enormous :  and  there  used  to  be 
a  heavy  per  centage  of  loss  in  the  sea  voyage  from 
Tunis  or  Tripoli  up  to  Constantinople,  when  they  were 
crammed  into  small  country  vessels  ill-navigated  and 
very  liable  to  wreck  or  to  founder.  Their  sufferings 
have  been  materially  decreased  since  the  introduction 
of  large  steam-boats ;  but  still  many  of  these  black  slaves 
are  brought  in  the  crazy  old  country  vessels  as  far  as 
Smyrna,  and,  sometimes,  up  to  the  Straits  of  the 
Dardanelles.     An  Arab  slave-dealer  told  Mr.  White 


Tg^r 


Chap.  XXVI.     GREAT  MORTALITY  OF  BLACK  SLAVES.      413 

that  the  mortality,  from  the  period  of  their  quitting  the 
interior  of  Africa  until  their  arrival  at  the  Turkish 
capital,  exceeded  60  per  cent*  This  was  five  years 
ago,  before  there  were  so  many  steamers ;  but  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  this  fearful  loss  of  life  has  been  re- 
duced 15,  or  even  10  percent  It  was  said  on  the  mart 
near  the  Suleimanieh  that  if,  for  two  slaves  he  bought 
in  the  interior  of  Africa,  the  dealer  could  sell  one  in 
Constantinople,  he  did  very  well.  If  these  dealers 
were  driven  to  their  old  coasting  voyages,  or  obliged  to 
drive  their  kafilas  by  land  through  the  passes  of  Mount 
Taurus  and  across  the  desolate  regions  of  Asia  Minor, 
the  mortality  and  the  cruel  sufferings  of  the  slaves 
would  be  vastly  increased.  Our  efforts  at  suppression 
would  be  attended  here,  as  on  the  African  coast  and 
the  passage  across  the  Atlantic,  by  nothing  else  but  an 
exaggeration  of  horrors  and  human  suffering  I 

Notwithstanding  the  decrease  of  stock  en  route,  the 
average  price  of  a  young  black  slave  of  superior  quality 
was  not  above  12Z.  sterling.  You  could  not  have 
bought  a  decent  horse  for  thrice  the  money.  If  re-sold, 
and  the  slave  was  yet  young  and  had  been  taught  the 
duties  of  a  household  servant,  the  price  would  some- 
times be  doubled. 

It  is  as  household  servants  that  both  male  and  female 
slaves  are  usually  employed.  We  saw  blacks  wherever 
we  went,  but  we  hardly  ever  found  them  working  in 
the  fields  or  employed  as  agricultural  labourers.  Those 
intended  to  supply  the  markets  of  Asia  Minor  were 
generally  dropped  on  the  coast,  but  a  good  many  of 
them  were  sold  at  Constantinople. 

•  "  Three  Years  in  Constantinople." 


414  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXVI. 

Perhaps  too  much  has  been  said  about  the  mildness 
of  domestic  slavery  in  Turkey.  I  doubt  whether  the 
Turks  treat  their  blacks  better  than  our  planters  treated 
their  indoor  slaves,  or  better  than  that  class  of  people 
are  treated  by  the  planters  of  Virginia  or  the  other 
slave-holding  States  of  the  American  Union;  and  I 
am  not  quite  sure  that  these  blacks  are  not  as  happy  in 
the  condition  of  agricultural  labourers — the  condition  of 
the  vast  majority  of  them  in  America — as  in  that  of 
household  servants — the  condition  of  nearly  all  in 
Turkey.  Dr.  Davis's  South  Carolina  negroes  looked 
down  with  contempt  on  the  lazy,  loitering^  housemaid 
blacks  of  this  country.  They  said  they  did  woman's 
work.  Instead  of  being  elated  with  joy  and  pride,  they 
were  filled  with  astonishment  and  disgust  at  seeing 
blacks  in  high  offices,  flourishing  in  uniforms,  and 
having  white  men  in  attendance  on  them.  This  is  a 
startling  assertion,  but  I  believe  it  will  astonish  no  one 
that  has  studied  the  negro  character  in  the  United 
States  or  in  our  West  Indian  islands.  From  the  fre- 
quency with  which  black  slaves  in  Turkey  were  running 
away,  it  was  reasonable  to  conclude  that  they  were  very 
often  dissatisfied  with  their  masters.  When  they  have 
a  good  kind  master  they  are  never  sure  how  long  they 
may  be  his.  In  a  country  so  liable  to  sudden  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune,  and  so  generally  in  a  state  of  deca- 
dence, slaves  and  whole  harems  are  frequently  thrown 
upon  the  market  to  fetch  what  prices  they  will,  and  to 
go  to  what  new  masters  they  may.  Suleiman,  who 
sells,  may  have  been  a  kind  indulgent  master,  but 
Mustapha,  who  buys,  may  turn  out  a  tartar  and  tyrant 
The  Mussulman  law  says  otherwise,   but  in  fact  the 


Chap.  XXVL    NUBIANS  INSOLENT  AND  FANATIC.  415 

slave,  whether  white  or  black,  can  rarely  obtain  justice 
against  his  master.  How  many  pashas  and  other  great 
Turks  have  murdered  their  slaves? — some  in  fits  of 
jealousy  and  some  in  freaks  of  cruelty,  and  some  in 
mere  brutal  passion ;  and  yet  who  ever  heard  of  one  of 
these  men  being  brought  seriously  to  account  ?  Such 
men  are  to  be  found  noWy  and  even  among  the  closest 
connexions  of  the  Sultan.  Was  Mehemet  Ali  ever 
questioned  about  his  double  murders  ?  Was  he  a  whit 
the  less  considered  among  the  Turks  for  having  with 
his  own  hand  sacrificed  his  fair  Circassian  and  then  her 
paramour  the  Georgian  slave  ? 

I  had  reason  to  believe  that  the  manumission  of 
black  slaves  was  of  rare  occurrence.  The  Nubians 
that  rise  in  the  army  or  state,  have  generally  been 
brought  (in  early  childhood)  to  the  slave-market,  and 
have  had  the  fortune  to  be  purchased  either  for  the 
Serraglio  or  for  some  great  man  who  has  had  the  rare 
fortune  to  continue  great.  The  insolence  and  arro- 
gance of  these  sable  parvenus  are  notorious.  But, 
taking  all  classes,  I  should  say  that  my  estimate  of 
black  human  nature  was  not  raised  by  what  I  saw  of  it 
in  Turkey  now  and  in  former  times.  The  common 
slaves,  and  the  common  black  soldiers  of  the  line, 
showed  more  contempt  or  hatred  of  Christians  than  any 
of  the  Turks  (exception,  perhaps,  being  made  of  the 
Ulema);  when  they  had  the  opportunity  they  were 
almost  invariably  insolent  and  very  frequently  turbulent 
and  mischievous.  Nothing  so  common  in  the  streets  of 
Constantinople  as  to  see  a  negress  hold  up  her  yashmac 
before  her  eyes,  or  turn  round  a  corner  at  the  approach 
of  a  Frank,  and  spit  on  the  ground  and  make  obscene 


416  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXVI. 

signs  with  her  hands  behind  his  back  when  he  has 
passed.  We  were  often  called  unclean  dogs  by  hideous- 
looking  black  men  from  Dongola  or  Senuaar.  In  the 
great  houses  the  greatest  swaggerer  and  bully — the 
fellow  who  was  rudest  to  Christian  strangers  and  the 
dread  of  his  fellow-servants  or  slaves — ^was  almost  inva- 
riably  a  black. 

In  1828  I  never  saw  any  but  blacks  sold  in  the  great 
Slave-market.  Then^  as  now^  the  Circassians  and  the 
other  whites  were  landed  at  Tophana,  were  there  lodged 
in  private  houses,  and  were  there  quietly  sold :  or  if 
they  were  too  young  for  immediate  sale,  they  were  kept 
in  those  houses,  or  sent  to  other  houses  over  in  Con- 
stantinople, in  which  they  were  educated  in  singing, 
dancing,  or  posture-making,  sherbet-mixing,  cookery, 
etc.,  and  trained  in  the  language  and  manners  of  the 
Turks.  Those  houses,  and  the  purposes  to  which  they 
were  devoted,  were  just  as  well  known  in  1848  as  in 
1828.  The  most  frequented  coffee-house  in  all 
Tophana  was  the  rendezvous  of  the  old  Circassian  slave- 
dealers,  and  the  place  in  which  they  despatched  business 
or  settled  preliminaries.  We  never  went  through 
Tophana  without  seeing  some  of  these  dealers — too  often 
dealers  in  their  own  flesh  and  blood — whose  vocation 
was  as  well  known  as  that  of  any  bakal  or  noisy  trunk- 
maker  of  the  district. 

Another  place  much  frequented  by  these  white 
savages,  who  have  been  fancifully  portrayed  as  in- 
teresting patriots  engaged  in  an  heroic  struggle  against 
Russia  (as  if  white  barbarians,  that  sell  their  own  sons 
and  daughters,  can  be  susceptible  of  patriotism,  or 
worthy  of  possessing  an  independent  country),  was  over 


Chap.  XXVI.     PRICES  OP  CIRCASSIAN  SLAVES.  417 

in  the  city  near  the  "  Burned  Column/'  not  far  from 
the  Horse-market  Here  are  houses  where  young 
slaves  are  in  training,  and  other  separate  houses  where 
Circassian  boys  and  girls  are  to  be  bought  from  the 
age  of  nine  or  ten  years  upwards.  No  secrecy  is 
affected.  Any  Mussulman  may  go  in  and  examine  the  . 
wares  on  sale;  and  money  will  open  the  doors  to  any 
curious  Frank.*  The  Circassian  dealers,  like  the  Arab 
traders  in  black  flesh,  are  men  of  importance  and  con- 
sideration among  the  Turks,  and  usually  have  ^^  Agha  " 
put  after  their  names.  They  are  generally  fanatic 
Mussulmans,  or  far  more  punctual  at  mosque,  ablu- 
tions, and  prayers  than  the  Osmanlees. 

As  a  general  rule  the  price  of  a  young  white  woman 
may  be  taken  at  from  three  to  four  times  the  price  of  a 
black.  But,  in  the  Circassian,  the  common  price  is 
greatly  enhanced  by  personal  beauty  or  by  superior 
Turkish  accomplishments;  and,  recently,  as  much  as 
20,000  piastres  had  often  been  paid  for  a  young  female. 
Boys  now  and  then  fetch  still  higher  prices.  According 
to  Mr.  White  the  maximum  price,  in  1844-45,  was 
45,000  piastres,  or  rather  more  than  400^ ;  but  such  a 
price  could  be  paid  only  by  the  very  greatest  and  richest 
in  the  land.  I  was  told  that  some  of  the  Circassians 
purchased  for  Abdul  Medjid's  harem,  by  his  own  mother 
(who  had  herself  been  a  bought  slave),  cost  more  than 
60,000  piastres  a-piece. 

There  is  still  some  kidnapping  and  child-stealing 
carried  on,  but  since  the  conquest  or  the  secured  pos- 

*  Mr.  Charles  White  had  the  curiosity  to  visit  one  of  these  marts. 
(See  '  Three  Years  in  Constantinople.')  I  had  not.  But  the  opportunity 
was  not  wanting. 

VOL.  II.  2  E 


4ia  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DB8TIHT.         Chaf.  XXVL 

session  of  Georgia  by  the  Bussians,  the  supply  of 
slaves  from  that  country,  which  used  to  fiimish  mme 
beauties  than  Circassia  for  the  Constantinople  markel^ 
may  be  considered  as  stopped.  During  the  Bussiau 
war  and  the  blockade  of  the  coasts  the  Circassian 
trade  was  considerably  diminishedi  If  Bussia  had 
entirely  conquered  that  country  also,  an  ^d  mighi 
have  been  put,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  to 
the  most  detestable  of  all  slave^trajlon  I  speak  hypo^ 
thetically,  and  I  allow  time ;  for^  the  people  of  these 
regions,  the  natives  of  the  ancient  Colchis,  whether  in 
their  pagan  state,  or  professing  the  Mussulman  £ui^ 
have  always  been  an  exception  to  ordinary  humanity*-* 
always  ready  to  sell  their  own  ehUdren,  as  well  as  to 
steal  and  sell  the  children  of  their  neighbours.  In  the 
early  days  of  the  Greek  republics  they  sold  their 
children  and  stocked  the  white  slave-market  of  Byxan- 
tium;  under  the  Greek  emperors  they  supplied  the 
demand  of  the  enlarged  Constantinople,  and  when  the 
Turks  established  themselves  there  they  only  continued 
the  same  ancient,  established,  hereditary  profession. 
The  domestic  institutions  of  the  Circassians,  by  re-> 
moving  children  at  an  early  age  from  the  care  of  their 
parents,  tend  to  eradicate  the  feelings  of  nature,  and  to 
render  it  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  mother,  whether 
the  child  she  has  borne  and  suckled  at  her  breast  be 
sold  into  Turkish  slavery  or  kept  in  Circassiat^  These 
institutions  are  not  to  be  changed  at  once^  these  an- 


*  The  beet  acooimt  of  these  nnnataral  instatatioiiB  will  be  found  hi 
Mr.  Longworth's  interesthig  work,  *  A  Year  hi  Giroasna.*  I  differ  iiom 
ooauy  of  my  friend's  conolnsions,  but  I  will  Touoh  for  the  conectneBs  of  his 
premises,  and  for  his  thorough  love  of  truth. 


^^^^^^^■^•^■-»— ^aii*^i^"^i^iw» 


Chap.  XXTL    KBOSBXR'  PASHA  AIO)  HAUL  PASHA.       419 

cient  usages  are  not  tD  be  pot  down  bj  one  impaial 
Ukase;  hot  wilk  a  firmly  cstiWiApd  gOFemmart,  as  ia 
Georgia,  with  a  steam  naTy  on  die  eoasti  with  aD  llie 
sea-pcHts  in  her  bands,  and  witb  good  gQaid4MNi9ei  at 
every  ^aee  of  anbarkadoD,  Sossia  mi^t,  and  woM 
give  an  immediate  and  great  dieck  to  tbe  Circaasiaa 
slave-trade ;  and  Ibis  mig^t  materially  tend  to  break  up 
the  detestable  harem  system  of  tbe  Turks,  and  to  pat 
(bem  cm  a  path  of  moral  improvement  to  ifbicb  they 
have  as  yet  made  no  appraacb.  Tbe  respect  doe  to 
women,  and  the  fiberty  to  wbidi  tbey  are  entitled^ 
wonld  begm  to  rise  when  women  were  no  longer  sold 
like  beasts  of  burden.  Tbe  sons  of  tbe  Sultans  and 
great  Pashas  would  no  longer  be  bom  of  slaves,  but  of 
firee  women ;  the  Turks  would  have  to  take  tbeir  wives 
from  among  their  own  people;  a  better  hereditary 
succession  would  be  established,  and  the  high  posts  in 
the  state  would  no  longer  be  filled  by  bougbti  de* 
moralized,  d^;raded  slaves,  whose  promotion  has  usually 
been  preceded  by  a  course  of  life  which,  in  other 
coimtries,  would  consign  them  to  the  galleys  or  the 
gibbet  The  souvenirs  of  these  men  must  be  destructive 
of  every  manly  virtue.  In  what  they  are  they  can 
never  forget  what  they  ham  been. 

Old  Ehoereff  Pasha  and  the  elder  HaUl  Pasha  were 
both  Georgian  slaves,  and  both  had  filled  the  very 
highest  offices  of  the  state.  ELhosreff  had  been  sold 
when  a  boy  at  Tophana,  and  when  he  had  become  a 
great  man  he  had  himself  bought  Halil  in  the  same 
market  When  Halil  grew  in  greatness  he  bought 
slaves  for  himself.  Old  Ehosrefi^,  his  former  master^ 
who  was  not  without  jealousy  at  Halil's  rapid  elevation^ 

2e2 


-»"1^ 


420  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXVL 

used  to  be  facetious  on  the  subject  ^^Hal  Halil," 
said  the  old  fox,  "  I  am  a  better  man  than  thou  art  I 
was  sold  for  10,000  piastres,  when  the  piastre  was 
double  the  money  it  was  worth  when  I  bought  thee. 
And  for  thee,  0 1  Halil,  I  did  pay  only  5000  piastres  I 
Mashallah  I  I  was  always  worth  more  than  thou.  Dost 
remember,  Halil,  when  I  bought  thee  from  the  belly- 
pinching  dealer  and  took  thee  to  my  plentiful  house  ?  ** 

Pleasant  reminiscences  I  Charming  banter  this,  to 
pass  between  a  hoary  ex-prime  minister  and  a  dignified 
lord  treasurer,  or  lord  high  admiral  I  Fancy  Lord 
John  Russell  having  been  sold  in  his  boyhood,  and 
then  having  bought  in  his  manhood'  the  Secretary  for 
Foreign  Aflairs,  or  the  Lord  Chancellor,  or  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Forces  I  When  such  men  as 
Khosreff  and  Halil  come  brightest  out  of  the  Turkish 
fountain  of  honour,  what  respect  can  be  paid  by 
civilized  men  to  Turkish  dignities?  For  my  part,  I 
could  rarely  sit  for  five  minutes  by  the  side  of  any  of 
them  without  thinking  of  the  joke  of  old  Khosreff. 

There  are  many  considerations  and  circumstances — 
upon  some  of  which  I  dare  not  dwell — ^which  always 
rendered  this  white  slave-trade  far  more  horrible  in 
my  eyes  than  the  trade  in  negroes.  Must  our  anti-> 
slavery  societies  have  the  warrant  of  ebony  to  excite 
their  zeal  or  kindle  their  indignation  ?  Is  their 
philanthropy  dependent  on  colour?  Have  they  no 
sympathy  for  slaves  that  are  white?  They  have 
stunned  us  with  the  woes  of  the  inferior  negro  races^ 
and  they  are  mute  upon  the  degradation  of  the  superior 
race  of  the  Caucasus.  But  there  is  so  much  routine 
in  all  the  philanthropy  of  the  day;  men's  minds  run 


»  ■    '     ■  I  I       ■        ■       I   Jl  M^i^TPWP 


CflAP.  XXVI.      SENSELESS  ABUSE  OF  RUSSIA.  421 

in  worn  tracks,  and  their  attention  is  so  seldom  called 
to  tiie  subject  of  Circassian  slavery,  and  the  moral 
corruption  to  which  it  gives  rise. 

Then,  too,  Circassia  has  been  named  of  late  years 
only  as  a  land  of  liberty  and  a  bulwark  against  Russia 
— a  power  incessantiy  abused  by  certain  politicians  for 
doing  no  more  than  we  have  ourselves  done,  and  have 
(in  good  part)  been  obliged  to  do,  in  India  and  the 
regions  beyond  the  Indus.  Not  an  argument  can  we 
use  in  justification  of  our  far-spreading  conquests  and 
aggrandizements  in  the  East,  but  is  as  available  to  tiie 
Russians  as  to  us.  The  Russians  are  excellent  pioneers 
of  civilization ;  the  Russians  have  improved  the  con- 
dition of  the  common  people  wherever  their  power  has 
been  firmly  established  (Poland  itself  not  being  an 
exception)  ;  the  Russians  have  promoted  agriculture, 
and  established  order  and  law  where  none  existed 
before;  the  Russians  have  put  down  anarchy,  feuds, 
and  incessant  internal  wars,  which  (as  in  India  before 
our  dominion)  depopulated  whole  towns  and  villages, 
and  kept  the  poor  people  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  wretched- 
ness, or  in  the  most  agonizing  state  of  uncertainty ; 
the  Russians  are  driven  upon  the  barbarous,  depopu- 
lated, prostrate  regions  of  Turkey  and  Persia  by  the 
same  irresistible  impulses,  circumstances,  and  necessities, 
which  have  impelled,  and  are  impelling  us  in  India. 

Mr.  David  Urquhart,  who  never  did  more  than 
merely  touch  the  Circassian  coast,  was  the  first  to  get 
up  tiie  Circassian  mania.  He  took  good  care  not  to 
tell  the  people  of  England  that  his  "  patriots  **  were 
savages  that  trafficked  in  their  jDwn  flesh  and  blood,  and 
that  his  "  heroes  "  were  kidnappers  and  child-stealers. 


422  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXYL 

These  heroes  and  patriots  were  not  so  grateful  as 
they  might  have  been.  As  the  best  donation  be 
could  make,  Mr.  Urquhart  invented  for  them  and 
gave  them  a  National  Standard.  The  material  was 
green  silk,  on  which  were  worked  a  great  many  stars, 
and  a  sheaf  of  arrows  bound  together.  The  stars  were 
to  denote  their  numbers  and  their  harmonious  move- 
mentB,  and  the  arrows  were  to  tell  the  patriots  what 
strength  there  is  in  union.  The  inventor  was  very  proud 
of  his  invention,  and  discoursed  eloquently  upon  it  at 
Constantinople.  In  Circassia  an  English  gentleman 
•aw  his  green  silk  flag  turned  into  a  pair  of  baggy 
breechea  Yes  I  notwithstanding  its  emblems,  its  stars, 
and  its  arrows,  the  national  standard  of  Circassia  was 
thus  degraded!  The  patriots  and  heroes,. who  did  not 
oft^i  march  or  show  their  faces  to  the  enemy  by  day- 
light, soon  grew  weary  of  carrying  this  flag  from  place  to 
place  by  night ;  a  wife  of  one  of  the  chiefs  fell  in  love 
with  the  silk,  and  begged  that  she  might  have  it  to 
make  ehalvar^.  My  informant  assured  me  that  the 
patriotesa  looked  very  smart  in  these  her  green  silk 
trowsers. 


Chap.  XXVH.        EXCUBSION  TO  NICOMEDIA.  423 


CHAPTER  XXVn. 

JSxettttAcm  to  Nloome^  —  Tmkfeh  dtesm-boftt  —  A  Venetian  Renegade  — 
Oonscriptioii  and  Parties  (xf  If  en-catehe»  —  Bribery  and  Comiption  — ' 
Slorenlineaitf  of  Turkiali  0£Boerg  —  A  fat  Colonel  ^-  Sonr  Tmanma  — 
Tomb  of  Hannibal  —  Scanty  Population  —  Decline  of  Cultivation  — 
Kara  Muaal  —  An  Armenian  Eenegade  —  Greek  Villages  —  Beautiful 
Scenery  -^  Town  Cf  Kic(»Kxedia<  or  lamitt  —  A  Bogae  for  a  DrogQmaa 
•^  M«  B.  —  Oonan  Bey  the  Governor  and  Ms  Municipal  Coandl  — 
A  Socialist  Proclamation  from  Paris  —  Osman  Bey's  history  —  Achmet 
Fevzy,  late  Capitan  Pasha  —  Acropolis  of  Nicomedia  —  Buined  Walls 
and  Towera  -^  Fragments  of  Classioal  Antiquity  *^  Greeks  ill-treated 
by  Turks  —  Quarteis  in  a  Greek  House  —  Salt-pans  —  A  beautiful 
Plain  —  The  Imperial  Cloth  Manufactory  —  Sickness  and  Death  of  the 
European  Workmen  -^  Pestilential  Atmosphere  of  the  Place  —  Arme- 
nian VQla^  of  Slombek  ^^  Graves  of  English  Workmen  —  A  frightful 
Bead  —  The  Gheuk  Dagh  — « The  Men-Catchers  again  —  The  Lake  of 
Sabcmjah  —  Causes  of  Malaria  —  Armenian  Monastery  of  Armash  -^ 
Adar-Bazaar  —  Kight  at  a  Turkish  Dervent  —  Betum  to  the  Cloth 
Mannfaefoiy —•  Sickness,  Son^ow;  and  Waste  of  Money  —  Bats  — 
Armenian  Plunder  -^  Nieomedia  and  the  Dancing  Boys  ^^  Poor  Tansi* 
maut  —  Grave  of  an  Hungarian  Exile  —  Imperial  Silk  Manufactoiy  at 
Heraclea  —  More  Waste  of  Money  —  M.  Bivi^re  from  Lyons  —  French, 
German,  and  Italian  Workmen  —  More  Communism  —  Turkey  eaten 
np^  and  the  Anaeniaus  picking  its  Bones  —  More  Men-catchers  —  A 
Bokhara  Trader  —  Population  of  ^ioomedia  -^  Betum  to  Constantinople 
—  Brutality  of  Armenian  Serafifs. 

On  Saturday  the  15th  of  April,  at  7.30  a.m.,  we 
left  the  Golden  Horn  for  the  Gulf  of  Ismitt,  or  Nieo- 
media. The  deck  of  the  Turkish  steamer  (the  same 
in  which  we  had  eome  from  Ghemlik  in  December) 
wa»  filthy  and  very  much  crowded  with  deck  passen* 
gers,  and  as  they  had  just  smeared  over  the  cabin  with 
stinking  paint  we  could  not  go  below  at  all.  The 
passengers  were  Turks — military  officers  and  soldiers — 


\ 


424  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVU. 

who  were  going  into  the  interior  of  Asia  Minor  men- 
hunting;  or — as  they  expressed  it — for  levying  the  con- 
scription and  collecting  the  recruits. 

These  Nimrods  were  in  all  about  1 60.  They  were 
divided  into  eight  gangs:  each  gang  having  a  captain,  a 
katib  or  clerk,  an  Imaum  to  give  spiritual  comfort,  and 
an  hekim  or  doctor  to  examine  the  recruits,  and  to 
attend  to  the  health  of  his  party.  There  were  also 
three  colonels,  who  were  to  fix  themselves  in  the 
principal  towns  of  the  interior,  and  there  see  the 
different  gatherings  collected  and  put  in  order  to  march 
for  Constantinople.  Of  the  hekims,  one  was  a  grey- 
moustached  old  Venetian,  one  was  a  young  French, 
man,  and  the  third  a  melancholy  young  Swiss;  the 
other  five  doctors  were  Franks  irom  Pera  and  Galata, 
who  were  said  to  have  had  no  sort  of  medical  education. 
These  last  had  not  even  studied  in  Galata  Serai.  This 
man-catching  up  in  Asia  was  considered  very  rough 
work.  Such  of  the  students  of  the  Medical  School,  as 
followed  the  profession,  tried  to  get  better  appoint- 
ments. The  Swiss  was  so  melancholy,  and  the  young 
Frenchman  seemed  so  ashamed  at  being  found  on  such 
service,  or  with  such  a  dirty,  vulgar  rabble,  that  they 
shunned  our  advances  and  would  enter  into  no  conver- 
sation. The  old  Venetian,  on  the  contrary,  was  only 
too  forward  and  talkative ;  as  he  was  dressed  in  Turkish 
uniform  and  wore  a  swordj  we  needed  no  one  to  tell 
ns  that  he  was  a  renegade.  Not  having  followed  his 
example,  the  Frenchman  and  the  Swiss  had  plain 
clothes  and  no  sword.  I  have  treated  in  another  book* 
of  the  Venetian's  politics,  of  his  republicanism,  and  of 

^  '  A  Glance  at  Revolationized  Italy,' 


"■  ^*   ""^wu— "-wi***^ "  ■-  ■'   ■  ■  ''i^''immmmmmmi^mmimmmmt0mm9mtii''^^mlf*'^f^f^*^%-'^m-^^ 


Chap.  XXVIL         A  VENETIAN  RENEGADE.  425 

his  predictions  (which  in  the  course  of  a  few  months 
were  pretty  well  verified),  that  Charles  Albert  would 
go  out  like  the  snuff  of  a  candle,  and  that  the  Italiau 
liberals  would  upset  Pius  IX.  He  was  one  of  the 
cunningest  and  most  roguish-looking  men  I  ever  met 
with ;  even  in  this  country  of  sinister  countenances  his 
struck  us  at  the  first  glance.  He  was  all  over  thin  and 
spare :  there  was  nothing  of  him  for  disease  to  catch  hold 
of;  and,  aged  as  he  was,*  he  was  quick,  hardy,  and  alert. 
Without  speaking  kindly  of  his  two  Frank  companions, 
he  spoke  most  contemptuously  of  the  Ferote  hekims : 
saying  that  it  was  because  Government  employed  such 
fellows  as  those  that  there  were  so  many  hunchbacks 
and  miserable  objects  in  the  Sultan's  army.  From  his 
own  account  of  his  history  before  he  became  a  hekim  in 
the  East,  I  saw  reason  to  doubt  whether  he  himself  had 
ever  received  even  the  rudiments  of  a  medical  educa- 
tion. He  had  been  a  common  soldier  and  a  common 
sailor  under  Bonaparte,  and  he  had  been  a  prisoner-of- 
war  in  England  on  board  the  hulks.  But  whatever 
skill  he  might  have  acquired  since,  he  gave  me  fully  to 
understand  that  he  had  not  busied  himself  with  the 
acquisition  of  common  honesty ;  and  from  his  own 
narrative  and  comments  I  suspected  that  he  too  must 
have  sent  a  good  many  miserable  objects  into  the 
Sultan's  army.  He  had  been  a  man-hunting  in  the 
interior  four  or  five  years  successively.  He  told  me,  that 
ihough  not  very  pleasant,  it  was  rather  profitable  work ; 
and  he  explained  how  money  was  to  be  made.  The 
son  of  a  Turk  that  has  some  property  is  drawn  to  serve. 
Well  1  the  father  or  mother  of  the  youth  secretly  slips 
200,  300,  or  mayhap  500  piastres  into  the  palm  of  the 


426  TUBKBY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXYH. 

examining  hekim  bashi,  and  the  hekim  testifies  that  the 
yoong  man  is  unfit  for  the  service,  having  a  narrow, 
weak  che^t,  a  fiat  foot,  bad  sight,  or  some  other  dis- 
qualification. If  the  recruiting  officers  should,  in 
certain  cases,  be  curious  and  doubtful,  and  examine  the 
man  drawn  or  to  be  drawn,  it  is  so  easy,  by  tiie  appli- 
cation of  an  unguent,  to  raise  a  firightfully-looking  sore, 
and  to  declare  it  to  be  an  incurable  ulcer.  ^^  These 
Turks,"  said  the  astiUo  VenezianOj  ^^are  such  born 
fools,  such  asses  by  nature,  that  a  clever  fellow  may  do 
almost  anything  with  them ;  not  but  that  we  medical 
oflloers  are  often  obliged  to  divide  our  spoils  with  the 
military  officers ;  and  sometimes  the  recruiting  officers 
do  business  on  their  own  account,  selling  discharges 
without  our  knowledge.  As  for  conscription,  as  prac* 
tised  in  Bonaparte's  time  in  France  and  Italy,  it  is  all 
a  e  .  .  • .  a  (fudge) ;  it  never  touches  the  Turks  who 
have  money  to  spend ;  the  Turks  who  have  no  money 
run  away  and  hide  themselves  as  our  parties  approach, 
and  we  catch  some  of  them  as  we  can,  haphazard ;  and 
'  ii  i^  when  they  are  caught,  any  of  them  have  parents, 

or  relatives,  or  friends  that  can  un-purse  (chipossino 

^^arsctre),  why  then,  as  a  general  rule,  we  let  them  go, 

atid  begin  to  hunt  down  others.*'     Officers  and  men 

I  (the  better  sort  avoid  this  service  and  are  apparently 

never  sent  on  it)  were  a  most  slovenly,  ragged,  firowsy 
company ;  some  were  dressed  in  uniform  that  was 
greasy  and  out  at  elbow,  while  others,  for  comfort  and 
convenience,  wore  the  old  Turkish  costume,  only  with- 
oittt  the  turban,  none  sporting  turbans  except  the 
Irnaums.  Officers  and  men  were  mixed  in  amicable 
confusion,  laughing    talking,    and    smoking    together. 


■11 


,li»J^  IJ  ^  JJJ 


QiAP.  XXVII.    GHEBSB — TOMB  OP  HANNIBAL.  427 

The  captains  had  not  only  very  dusty  and  ragged  coats, 
bat  also  very  dirty  shirts.  The  Imaums,  as  usual, 
looked  cleanly,  and  their  big  turbans  were  of  a  spotless 
white ;  but  they  were  the  only  men  on  board  that  were 
uncivil  and  insolent*  One  of  the  colonels,  a  man 
apparently  not  above  five-and-forty,  was  an  unwieldy 
mass  of  fat  and  blubber,  with  an  alarmingly  short  neck, 
and  a  monstrous  abdomen.  He  had  kept  on  a  dirty 
pair  of  French  boots,  and  a  loose  pair  of  black  cloth 
pantaloons,  but  over  these  .he  wore  a  Turkish  silk 
jacket^  padded  within,  and  offering  without  the  delicate, 
feminine  hue  of  the  turquoise :  sky-blue  is  not  the  word, 
it  was  turquoise-blue — a  colour  of  which  the  Turks  are 
very  fond.  As  we  got  into  warm  shelter  under  the 
mountains  of  Asia,  he  lay  down  in  the  sun,  coiled  up 
under  an  umbrella ;  and  he  slept  and  snored  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  voyage.  I  could  not  help  wondering 
how  this  tub  of  a  man  was  ever  to  get  over  the  tremen- 
dous mountains  of  the  interior ;  nor  could  I  help  doubts 
ing  whether  he  would  ever  get  back  alive  to  Stamboul. 
The  weather  was  fine,  and  had  we  been  a  little  less 
crowded  the  voyi^e  would  have  been  delightfiil.  We 
passed  between  the  main  and  the  picturesque  group  of 
the  Princes*  Islands,  and  then  soon  opened  the  Gulf  of 
Kicomedia.  We  found  ourselves  at  11.50  a.m.  off 
the  large  village  or  town  of  Ghebs^,  which  runs  along 
some  hill  tops.  We  could  not  make  out  the  tumulus 
which  stands  near  this  place,  and  bears  the  name  of  the 
tomb  of  ELannibaL  On  the  other  side  of  the  gulf  just 
opposite  Ghebs^  was  a  small  village.  On  both  sides 
the  population  was  very  scanty,  and  the  appearance  of 
agriculture  rare. 


428  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVH. 

The  mountains  on  our  right  now  began  to  grow  lofly 
and  majestic.  At  I  p.m.  we  stopped  at  the  town  of 
Kara  Musal  on  the  right  shore,  and  under  a  grand, 
steep,  b  eautifuUy  wooded  mountain.  Here  more  than 
half  of  our  men-hunting  friends  left  us,  the  old  Vene- 
tian doctor  landing  with  them.  Across  the  Gulf  and 
nearly  opposite  was  Herek-keui,  with  the  grand  Impe- 
rial Silk  Manufactory.  We  took  in  a  few  passengers, 
and  stiarted  again  at  1.30  p.m.  Among  these  passen- 
gers was  an  Armenian  boy  of  Nicomedia,  who  had 
recently  turned  Mussulman,  and  who  had  now  been  at 
Kara  Musal  to  be  circumcised  with  half  a  score  of 
Turkish  boys — this  being  a  ceremony  never  performed 
singly.  The  Mussulmans  of  Kara  Musal  had  clapped 
a  big  white  turban  on  his  head,  had  given  him  a  fine 
braided  jacket,  and  had  filled  his  pockets  with  Jcludvh 
and  other  Turkish  sweetmeats.  He  kept  munching 
and  sucking  his  dohi  all  the  way,  and  seemed  to  be 
very  well  satisfied  with  his  new  religion  and  turban.  He 
was  a  handsome  boy,  apparently  about  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  old — I  was  told  that  he  was  much  older  in  vice 
and  profligacy.  He  had  been  a  dancing  boy.  Sat. 
About  a  mile  above  Kara  Musal,  on  the  same  side,  was 
the  large  Greek  village  of  Tepe-keui,  charmingly  si- 
tuated among  trees  midway  up  the  mountain.  Here 
and  there,  on  the  hill  sides»  we  saw  small  groves  of 
cypress  trees,  and  detached  single  cypresses,  marking 
the  graves  of  Osmanlees,  and  the  sites  of  Turkish 
villages  which  no  longer  existed.  At  2  p.m.  there  was 
another  Greek  village  on  our  right,  on  the  margin  of 
the  water,  and  a  little  further  on  there  was  a  large 
village  called   Gongia,    inhabited  solely   by  Greeks. 


ssr*^ 


Ohap.  XXVn.  ISMITT,  OR  NICOMEDIA,  429 

Other  Greek  villages  were  concealed  firom  view ;  but 
their  numbers  intimated  that  here,  too,  the  Rayahs  are 
increasing  more  rapidly  than  the  Mussulmans  are  de- 
creasing. 

At  3.30  P.M.  we  came  to  anchor  at  Ismitt  or  Nico- 
media,  off  a  rotten,  tumbledown  wooden  pier  or  jetty. 
From  the  deck  of  the  steamer  the  town  appeared  even 
more  beautifiil  than  Apollonia  when  we  first  saw  it 
across  that  lake ;  a  part  of  it  curved  gracefully  round 
the  edge  of  the  Gul^  and  the  rest  ascended  and  crowned 
a  sharp  conical  hill,  the  houses  being  intermixed  with 
leaden  domes,  and  snow  white  minarets,  cypresses,  pop- 
lars, and  platani,  all  fresh  and  foil  of  leaf.  In  a  few 
hours  we  had  got  into  another  climate ;  vegetation  here 
was  a  good  month  more  forward  than  at  Constantinople. 

We  had  brought  with  us  for  servant  and  drogoman  a 
mongrel  from  Fera,  having  engaged  him,  not  so  much 
on  the  faith  of  testimonials  he  showed  us  from  English 
and  other  travellers,  as  in  an  unwise  reliance  on  his 
soft  voice  and  manner,  and  meek  honest  looking  coun- 
tenance. In  f route  nulla  jides.  He  turned  out  a  great 
rogue,  and  a  fool  and  an  idle  fellow  to  boot.  He  had 
been  swilling  raki  on  the  voyage,  and  was  muzzy  and 
stupid  when  we  wanted  his  services.  Fortunately  in 
one  of  the  boats  which  came  off  to  land  the  passengers 

we  found  a  friend  in  Monsieur  R ^  an  intelligent 

young  Frank  we  had  met  at  Brusa.  He  took  charge 
of  us  and  procured  us  comfortable  quarters  in  a  clean 
respectable  Greek  house.  We  went  with  him  to  pay  a 
visit  to  Osman  Bey,  a  man  of  some  notoriety,  and  now 
governor  of  this  place,  once  the  capital  of  the  great 
king  Prusias  and  the  abode  of  HannibaL 


430  TUEKET  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVIL 

The  konack  where  the  Bey  receiyed  us,  was  a  low, 
shabby  building  near  the  water's  edge ;  but  he  had  a 
good  dwelling-house  up  in  the  town.  At  our  arrival 
he  had  with  him  the  members  of  the  Council  of  Nico- 
media.  They  were  Turks  to  a  man;  yet  here  the 
Armenians  are  very  numerous  and  influential.  The 
members  soon  retired  and  left  us  to  have  a  long  talk 
with  the  Bey  about  these  troublesome  times  and  all 
these  revolutions.  He  showed  us  a  Socialist  proclama- 
tion, recently  published  in  Faris,  and  he  asked  me 
whether  I  did  not  think  that  such  addresses  to  the 
poverty  and  passions  of  the  people  would  end  in  a 
disorganisation  of  society.  It  was  curious  to  read  such 
a  paper  in  such  a  place.  He  appeared  to  be  a  sen- 
sible man,  and  to  us  he  was  very  civil  and  courteous ; 
he  was  said  to  grind  and  oppress  much  less  than 
Turkish  governors  in  general,  but  to  be  notorious  for 
the  vice  of  Turks  and  Persians.  He  was  once  captain 
of  a  ship  of  the  line.  In  1839,  on  the  death  of  Sultan 
Mahmoud,  he  deserted  with  Achmet  Fevzy,  Capitan 
Pasha,  who  delivered  up  the  Sultan's  fleet  to  Mehemet 
Ali  of  Egypt.  Our  cannonading  of  Acre  led  to  the 
restitution  of  this  fleet,  and  then  Osman  Bey  remained 
for  some  years  an  exile  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  At 
length  old  Mehemet  Ali  obtained  his  pardon  from  the 
gentle  Abdul  Medjid.  Having  made  friends  at  Con- 
stantinople with  the  members  of  Kiza  Pasha's  govern* 
ment,  and  holding  considerable  landed  and  Other 
property  in  this  neighbourhood,  he  had  been  made 
governor  of  Ismitt,  and  he  was  now  said  to  have  good 
support  in  Beschid  Pasha's  Cabinet.  His  old  superior^ 
Achmet  Fevzy,  had  been  a  common  boatman  on  the 


CHAP.XXVn.    OSMAK  BEY  —  ACHMET  FBVZY.  431 

Bosphonis ;  he  was  altogether  ignorant  of  such  accom- 
plishments as  reading  and  writing,  and  he  was  working 
as  a  common  boatman  only  a  few  short  years  before  he 
became — ^in  rapid  succession — yalet  to  Sultan  Mah^ 
moud,  Lieutenantp*General,  Field-Marshal,  Ambassador 
at  St  Fetersburgh,  and  Capitan  Fasha,  or  Lord  High 
Admiral.  My  dear  old  friend,  C.  Zohrab,  knew  him 
well  in  his  humble  state,  and  so  often  rowed  in  his 
caique  to  and  from  Therapia,  that  he  was  almost  consi- 
dered as  Achmet  Feyzy's  master.  The  lucky  caiquejee 
had  many  good  qualities,  and  among  these  was  a 
faithful  remembrance  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity  of 
those  who  had  befriended  him  in  his  adversity.  He 
had  been  described  to  me  by  Christians  as  one  of  the 
best  Turks  in  power  that  they  had  ever  known.  It 
was  neither  premeditated  treason  nor  Egyptian  gold, 
neither  any  dislike  of  the  new  Sultan  (then  an  innocent 
boy),  nor  any  love  for  Mehemet  Ali  or  Ibrahim  Fasha, 
that  induced  him  to  turn  traitor,  and  carry  the  fleet  to 
Alexandria.  He  had  involved  himself  in  a  mortal 
enmity  with  the  old  fox  Ehosrefi^  with  Halil  (formerly 
SLhosrefT's  slave),  with  Mustapha  Nouree  (our  Brusa 
Fasha),  and  with  other  vindictive  and  unscrupulous 
men.  On  the  demise  of  Sultan  Mafamoud,  Khosreff 
Fasha  got  the  reins  of  government  into  his  hands,  and 
became,  for  a  time,  absolute  master  of  the  empire. 
The  Capitan  Fasha,  who  was  in  the  Archipelago,  felt 
assured  that  he  would  be  recalled,  and  equally  sure 
tibat  if  he  ascended  the  Dardanelles  and  went  to  Con- 
stantinople, he  would  be  utterly  ruined  in  his  fortunes, 
if  not  put  to  death.  *^  I  know  KhoeveSj*'  said  he,  *^  the 
fox  shall  not  catch  me  I    I  should  be  worse  than  on  ass 


432  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVII. 

if  I  went  into  his  hole ;"  and  8o,  in  his  dread  of  Khos- 
reffy  he  went  into  Alexandria  and  gave  his  fleet  up  to 
Mehemet  Ali.  Unlike  Osman  Bey,  he  could  never 
obtain  a  pardon.  The  Pasha  of  Egypt  gave  him  a 
small  pension,  and  probably  grew  tired  of  even  giving 
that  In  about  two  years  and  a  half  after  his  tradi" 
mento^  Achmet  Fevzy  died  suddenly  at  Cairo,  leaving 
it  a  matter  of  speculation  whether  he  had  been  taken 
off  by  apoplexy,  or  by  a  poisoned  cup  of  coffee.  Thus 
was  the  story  read  to  me  at  Fera  by  some  who  had 
been  well  acquainted  with  the  man  and  his  adventures ; 

and  by  what  I  now  learned  from  Monsieur  R ,  this 

was  the  reading  that  Osman  Bey  now  gave. 

We  walked  up  to  the  top  of  the  curious  steep  conical 
town.  Though  far  better  than  many  Turkish  towns  we 
had  visited,  the  interior  by  no  means  corresponded  with 
the  beautiful  exterior.  The  streets  were  narrow  and 
filthy,  and  at  least  half  of  the  houses  that  had  looked  so 
charmingly  at  a  distance  were  falling  to  bits.  High  up 
the  hill,  on  a  small  esplanade  shaded  by  beautiiul  plane- 
trees  and  by  dark  cypresses,  we  stopped  at  a  mosque 
which  had  recently  been  rebuilt  by  Abdul  Medjid,  who 
once  came  to  these  parts  to  see  th^  Imperial  Manu- 
factories. Here  had  stood  an  ancient  mosque,  erected 
by  Orkan  before  the  Turks  conquered  Brusa,  and  made 
it  the  capital  of  their  infant  empire ;  but,  regardless  of 
the  historical  interest  of  the  building,  the  Turks  had 
allowed  this  early  mosque  to  go  utterly  to  ruin,  and 
little  was  left  of  it,  except  its  low,  solid,  stone  minaret. 
The  present  structure,  which  the  Sultan  had  caused  to 
be  erected  on  the  spot,  was  a  shabby  precarious  con- 
cern, built  of  wood  that  was  already  starting  and  warp- 


Chap.  XXVH.        ACROPOLIS  OF  XICOMEDIA.  433 

ing;  but  being  painted  of  a  light  colour,  and  flanked 
and  backed  by  dark  trees,  it  had  a  striking  efiect  from 
the  gulf  below.  Before  the  Turkish  conqueror  built  his 
mosque,  a  Greek  church  had  stood  on  that  natural  ter- 
race; and  that  church  had  probably  been  erected  on 
the  ruins  and  with  the  materials  of  an  ancient  Greek 
temple,  for  truncated  columns,  mutilated  inscriptions, 
and  fragments  of  Grecian  antiquity,  were  close  at  hand. 
On  the  top  of  the  cone  we  found  the  confined  Acropolis 
of  ancient  Nicomedia.  This  city  was  one  of  the  first 
that  felt  the  fury  of  the  invading  Goths  in  the  third 
century  of  the  Christian  era.  Then  a  rich  and  splendid 
place,  it  was  plundered,  burned,  demolished,  as  Chalce- 
don  had  been  before,  and  as  Nice,  Frusa,  Apamsea, 
Cius,  and  other  splendid  cities,  were  destroyed  a  few 
weeks  afterwards.  The  ruins  which  remained  on  the 
Acropolis  were  inconsiderable,  and  were  all  of  the 
Lower  Empire,  although  composed  in  good  part  of 
more  ancient  and  classical  materials.  They  consisted 
of  fragments  of  walls  and  rent  towers.  Some  of  the 
towers  were  square,  and  some  irregularly  rounded.  The 
prospect  over  gul^  valley,  and  moimtain,  and  the  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  town  beneath  us,  were  exquisite.  For 
the  scenery  alone,  I  would  recommend  every  traveller 
in  Turkey  to  make  this  excursion,  and  to  spend  at  least 
one  evening  among  the  ruins  of  the  Acropolis  of  Nico- 
media. Close  by  them  we  found  a  Turkish  cemetery, 
which,  with  its  dark  cypresses  and  white  tombstones, 
was  a  most  perfect  picture  of  that  sort*  Here  were  a 
good  many  fragments,  but  so  minute,  so  displaced,  dis- 
jointed, and  broken  to  pieces,  that  nothing  could  be 
made  of  them  except  that  they  were  Greek,  or  Greco* 

VOL.  u.  2  F  . 


I  Ti  I  liriMr-   ■-TBTii—    ■■ I,    ...   ..,^^ 


484  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,         Chap.  XXVII. 

Boman.  The  splendid  medaglioni  of  Nicomedia,  of 
which  I  had  seen  several  specimens  in  1828,  had  all 
been  carried  off  long  ago.  Collectors  and  agents  of  col- 
lectors had  been  here,  as  in  all  other  parts,  and  the 
chance  dealings  in  old  coins  had  been  turned  into  a 
regular  trade. 

The  Greeks  being  comparatively  few  in  number  in 
the  town,  though  numerous  in  the  neighbouring  villages, 
seemed  to  be  depressed  and  timid.  Our  host's  son  was 
afraid  to  go  on  an  errand  into  ilie  Turkish  quarter, 
saying  that  it  was  after  swiset,  and  that  the  Turkish 
boys  would  fall  upon  him.  The  people  of  the  house 
were  keeping  the  long  fast  which  precedes  Easter,  in 
the  most  rigorous  manner,  eating  little  more  than  bread, 
cabbages,  and  bad  black  olives.  The  cholera  had  not 
come,  but  was  daily  expected.  The  fasting  Greeks  and 
Armenians  were  inviting  its  visit  by  their  crude,  un- 
wholesome diet. 

On  the  following  morning,  at  7.15  A.M.,  we  were  on 
horseback  (if  our  rosses  could  be  called  horses),  and 
starting  for  the  Sultan's  Cloth  Manufactory,  widi  a 
good-tempered  Turkish  suridjee,  and  Giovanni,  our 
roguish  and  useless  Ferote  drogoman.  The  town 
stretched  farther  along  the  gulf  than  we  had  imagined. 
A  long  stra^ling  street,  chiefly  occupied  by  wretehed* 
looking  shops,  reached  nearly  to  the  end  of  the  gulf.  We 
met  some  Turkish  travellers — peasants  and  little  fexmers 
«^-who  were  coming  into  the  town  from  the  neighbonrio^ 
mountains.  They  hailed  las  aa  ^apitam^  and  sainted  ub 
with  much  courtesy  and  good  humour.  One  poor  fellow 
was  going  to  give  us  the  ^^  Salam-Aleikum^"  or  thQ 
**  Peace  be  with  you,**  i^hkh  no  Mussulman  must  be* 


^SSmm^ 


Chap.  XXVH.  THE  SALaM-ALEIKUM.  435 

Stow  upon  a  Ghiaour  ;*  but  he  bethought  himself  in 
time,  and  only  said  ^*  ScU.** . .  > .  At  the  end  of  the  gul^ 
close  to  the  town  (which  had  brewers  of  malaria  enough 
without  them),  there  was  a  long  line  of  Tuzlar  or  salt- 
pans, like  those  under  Mr.  H ^'s  chiftlik.    We  were 

now  upon  the  verdant  plain,  which  looked  more  beauti- 
iul  than  it  had  done  yesterday,  when  seen  from  the 
deck  of  the  steamer.  At  8.15  a.m.  we  waded  across  a 
river  which  flows  from  the  mountains  near  the  Sabanjah 
Lake.  The  water  touched  our  saddle-girths,  but  it  was 
beautifully  clear,  and  was  running  over  a  good  hard 
pebbly  bottom.  Near  at  hand  we  saw  the  massive  ruins 
of  an  ancient  bridge.  As  we  advanced,  the  plain  be- 
came still  greener  and  more  beautiful,  and  there  were 
patches  of  wood  here  and  there.  To  our  right,  the  slopes 
of  the  hills,  with  clumps  of  trees  distributed  by  nature^ 
looked  like  an  English  park,  or  rather  like  a  long  su&- 

*  Hf ow  thftt  Turks  dress  so  much  like  Christians,  axid  all  classeB  wear 
the  unsiglitly,  meonYeimnt  fez,  mistakes  rather  freqitently  occur. 

One  evening,  while  riding  from  Tuzlar  to  Bnisa,  J.  Z.  met  a  Mussul- 
man who,  in  passing,  gave  him  the  SaULm-Aleikum.  Going  on  his  way, 
the  Turk  learned  from  a  peasant  on  the  road  that  our  friend  was  a  Christian  ; 
and,  turning  his  horse'd  head  thereupon,  he  followed  John,  and  with  much 
excitement  demanded  that  he  would  give  him  back  his  Saldm-Aleikum. 
**  I  gave  it  yott,*^  said  the  Tchelebee :  ''  did  I  not  say  Aleihim^SalSmy  as 
the  use  is  ?**  ''  Ay  I  but,"  said  the  Turk,  *'  those  be  words  that  must  not 
pass  between  a  Mussulman  and  a  Ghiaour  I  Are  you  not  a  Ghiaour  ?" 
John  said  he  was  a  Christiaa,  and  that  he  thought  nowadays  Christia&ff 
and  Mussulmans  might  say  to  each  other  "  Peace  be  with  you  P  "  No !" 
said  the  Turk,  *'  they  may  not  I  Give  me  back  my  salam !  Tell  me  that 
you  consider  I  did  not  say  SdUhn-Aleikum  to  you  I"  The  Tchelebee, 
who  had  his  double-barrels  in  his  hand,  cared  very  little  whether  it  was 
peace  or  war  between  them ;  but  he  gratified  the  uneasy  man,  and  they 
parted. 

None  of  the  Turks  in  Asia  Minor — ^not  even  those  who  were  kindest  to 
us,  and  most  friendly  with  J.  Z. — ^would  ever  give  us  the  Salam'Aleikum^ 
It  was  the  same  in  Roumelia, 

2f2 


436  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVn. 

cession  of  parks ;  but  these  acclivities  were  backed  by 
lofty  mountains  that  were  densely  wooded  to  the  very 
top.  Here,  for  the  first  time  this  season,  we  heard 
the  vernal  voice  of  the  cuckoo.  Thrushes,  larks,  and 
blackbirds  were  singing  and  piping  gaily.  The 
storks  had  all  returned,  and  were  busy  collecting 
materials  to  repair  their  huge  nests.  These  large  grave 
birds  were  the  visible  population  of  the  valley :  we  saw 
no  men. 

Having  crossed  a  stream  by  a  strong  rustic  wooden 
bridge,  which  had  been  made  by  an  English  cloth- 
weaver,  and  having  ascended  the  stream  for  about  half 
a  mile,  we  came  up  to  the  grand  Fabrica,  which,  with 
its  appendages,  had  a  respectable  and  almost  imposing 
appearance.  It  had  taken  us  nearly  two  hours  to  ride 
from  Nicomedia,  though  I  should  think  the  distance 
was  scarcely  six  miles. 

Englishmen  had  set  up  the  machinery,  and  expert 
hands  from  the  clothier  districts  of  Yorkshire  had  first 
made  cloth  in  this  Asiatic  solitude ;  but  the  last  of  the 
English  had  been  sent  adrift  two  years  ago,  and  the 
place  of  our  countrymen  had  been  supplied  by  Belgians 
who  had  been  engaged  by  the  Armenian  Dadians  at 
lower  salaries.  When  Mr.  N.  Davis  was  here,  in  the 
preceding  autumn,  he  found  the  whole  Belgian  colony 
laid  up  with  malaria  fevers.  Being  only  in  the  month 
of  April,  we,  or  the  Belgians,  were  not  quite  so  unfor- 
tunate ;  yet  the  good  men  who  came  out  to  meet  us  and 
give  us  welcome  looked  little  better  than  a  procession 
of  convalescents  issuing  from  an  hospital.  All  these 
men  (six  or  seven  in  number)  wore  the  unmistakeable 
livery  of  the  malaria  demon:  they  had  all  sufiTered 


i»«ef>^     -ML-4„— i».iJW^M^^w     ■  i,».»— >»*.^r-^P^— p— a»^wa^tP!^B— g^Mggg^s^i^BL.  .  ■     i    1 


Chap.  XXVn.        CLOTH-WORKS  —  MALARIA,  437 

cruelly  last  year,  and,  early  as  it  was  in  the  season,  two 
of  them  had  now  that  horrible  fever  and  ague  upon 
them.  They  all  appeared  to  be  very  quiet,  respectable 
men — excellent  specimens  of  the  artisans  of  the  Nether- 
lands. They  took  us  into  their  lodging-house,  which 
was  detached  from  the  grand  Fabrica,  and  kindly 
pressed  us  to  take  refreshments.  They  gave  us  a  mov* 
ing  account  of  their  annoyances  and  sufferings,  which 
had  commenced  with  their  arrival  in  the  country.  It 
was  not  a  blessing  they  pronounced  on  those  who 
brought  them  hither,  with  the  assurance  that  they  were 
to  live  in  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  and  in  a 
most  healthy  climate.  Two  of  their  party  had  given 
up  the  ghost  last  autumn.  Of  their  English  predeces- 
sors three  had  died  here  and  two  had  carried  away 
diseases  which  killed  them  before  they  could  reach 
their  own  homes.  There  was  one  old  Belgian  in  the 
room  upon  whom  the  fevers  had  produced  a  curious 
effec^-they  had  deprived  him  of  his  memory. 

The  English  mechanics  finding  that  they  could  not 
live  down  here  in  the  warm  weather,  or  sleep  in  the 
house  without  being  attacked,  had  taken  lodgings  at  an 
Armenian  village  on  the  hills,  called  Slombek,  where 
two  of  them  were  now  lying  buried.  The  Belgians,  the 
summer  before  last,  had  tried  Slombek  and  had  fevered 
there ;  last  summer  they  had  tried  the  Greek  village  of 
Kara  Tepe,  and  had  fevered  there,  although  it  was  a 
good  way  up  the  mountains ;  and  now  they  were  trying 
the  elevated  Armenian  village  of  Hovajik  and  were 
fevering  there.  They  said  they  suffered  a  great  deal 
more  than  the  people  of  the  country,  but  that  they 
hardly  knew  a  native  that  had  been  free  from  the  ter* 


438  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVD. 

rible  disorder  in  the  months  of  September  and  October 
last  Yet  here  the  country  was  most  beautiAil  to  look 
upon,  and  the  air  was  sweet  and  balmy.  The  scenery 
behind  the  works  was  like  another  long  succession  of 
parks,  having  verdant  open  slopes,  with  the  sun  shining 
brightly  upon  them,  and  a  magnificent  background  of 
woods  and  mountains.  The  stagnating  waters,  though 
near  at  hand,  were  out  of  sight,  in  the  hollows  of  the 
plain.  The  building  stood  on  a  fine  open  undulating 
hill-side,  and — at  a  distance  —  really  looked  like  a 
nobleman's  seat  in  the  midst  of  his  park.  As  it  was 
Sunday  the  works  were  all  closed,  but  we  were  invited 
to  return  to-morrow,  when  everything  would  be  shown 
to  us. 

We  re-mounted  at  10.15  a.m.  to  see  the  lake  of 
Sabanjah  (called  by  the  old  Greeks  "  Sophon  **),  at  the 
head  of  the  plain.  Diverging  from  the  road  or  track, 
we  took  a  most  ru^ed  path  up  the  hills,  a  mile  or  two 
to  the  east  of  the  factory,  in  order  to  visit  the  Armenian 
village  of  Slombek  and  the  graves  of  the  Englishmen 
who  had  perished  in  this  perfidious,  accursed  place, 
unhappy  dupes  of  Hohannes  Dadian. 

We  reached  the  village  at  11.15  a.m.  after  a  some- 
what disastrous  ride — the  path  being  now  and  then 
quite  horrible.  It  being  Sunday,  and  PcJm  Sunday 
to  boot,  the  Armenian  villagers  were  making  merry, 
drinking  wine  and  raki,  eating  parched  peas  and  sweet* 
meats,  and  sporting,  in  their  gross  way,  amoi^  tibe 
gravestones ;  for  the  scene  of  their  merriment  was  tlie 
cemetery.  There  were  no  women  present,  and  Ae 
men  were  as  repulsive  a  set  as  could  be  seen.  A  troop  of 
burly,  dirty,  blear-eyed  boys  were  playing  on  the  toml>* 


■an*   ■  hi"  I     I    iM  <       .m,\m  H„  ■.l.iKHJWpg— ■« 


Chap.  XXVU.     DEFACED  ENGLISH  TOMBSTONE.  439 

stone  of  tibe  poor  Englishmen  ^hieh  stood  in  the  midst 
of  the  cemetery ;  and  they  would  not  move  until  our 
suridjee  drove  them  away.  The  barbarians  had,  with 
stones  and  hammers  and  knives,  completely  obliterated 
the  Christian  names  and  surnames,  the  ages  and  native 
places  of  our  poor  countrymen.  It  is  curious  they 
should  have  selected  just  these  portions  for  their  mi&* 
chief.  All  the  rest  of  the  inscription  was  perfectly 
legible.*     It  ran  thus : — 

In  Memory  of 
•     •••«•    Wool  Stapler,    *♦•••* 

WHO  DIED  September  16,  1844, 

AND  OF 
«•••««      gcBIBBLEE      •*•♦•• 

WHO  DIED  October  15th,  1846, 

AND   OP 

•     •••««     Scribbler     •♦*••• 
WHO  DIED  November  6,  1844,  and  was  interred  at  Ismitt  ; 

Alili  IN   THE  SERVICE  OP   THE 

OTTOMAN  GOVERNMENT, 

It  was  irritating  to  see  this  memorial  of  the  dead 
(erected  little  more  than  two  years  ago  by  tibie  English 
survivors)  thus  defaced  and  misused  by  these  gross, 
unimaginative,  Armenian  boors.  The  slab,  which  was 
raised  only  some  18  inches  from  the  ground,  and 
which  was  no  loiter  in  an  horizontal  position,  was  of 
the  coarse  common  stuff  of  the  country,  called  marble 
by  courtesy,  and  described  as  bright  and  pure  by  your 

*  I  afterwards  asoertamed  that  the  names  of  the  three  victims  wer^^ 

Benjamin  Oddy. 
♦  ♦  ♦  ♦  Howard. 
J.  Binns. 
The  last  (a  native,  I  believe,  of  Leeds)  was  the  one  that  was  drowned. 


timmmmmimmm^tmimiiggBamtmimSm^SSi^SimmH^amg^i^^^*tli^ 


440  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVH. 

Lamartines.     No  doubt  it  will  soon  be  broken  and 
will  altogether  disappear. 

Two  of  the  poor  Englishmen,  who  are  buried  side  by 
side  under  the  slab,  died  of  the  malaria  fever  direct ; 
the  third,  who  was  buried  at  the  edge  of  the  town  of 
Nicomedia,  was  said  to  have  gone  mad  of  fevers,  bad 
living,  solitude  ^d  wretchedness,  and  to  have  slipped 
out  one  night  and  drowned  himself  in  the  deep  mill- 
pool  of  the  factory.  There  were,  however,  some  who 
reported  that  he  never  was  insane,  and  that  he  certainly 
did  not  commit  suicide.  Both  at  Constantinople  and 
Nicomedia  I  heard  whispers  that  some  sullen  Armenian 
workmen,  to  whom  he  had  given  offence,  had  surprised 
him  by  night  and  had  hurled  him  into  the  pool.  No 
inquiry  was  made;  the  poor  fellow  was  but  a  wool- 
scribbler — a  "low  mechanic'' — and  how  cajk gentlemen 
of  legations  and  consulates  occupy  themselves  about 
such  as  he  I  One  of  the  Belgians  had  his  grave  here, 
close  to  the  two  Englishmen ;  the  other  was  buried  by 
the  side  of  the  Englishman  at  Nicomedia.  The  ghosts 
of  these  poor  men,  and  of  the  many  other  European 
victims,  ought  to  haunt  Hohannes  Dadian.  The 
Belgktn's  grave  here  had  no  slab  or  sione;  it  was 
merely  marked  by  a  slight  mound  of  earth,  which  the 
rude  feet  of  the  Armenians  would  soon  press  to  a  level 
with  the  soil.  The  brutish  people  were  treating  the 
tombstones  of  their  own  fathers  and  friends  with  dis- 
respect, sitting  or  lolling  on  them,  and  spreading  out  on 
them  their  wine  and  raki,  klialva  and  parched  peas, 
and  stinking  soups  of  cabbages  and  leeks  in  wooden 
bowls.  Many  of  them  were  drunk  without  being  merry. 
We  saw  one  hideous  fellow  without  a  nose.     Thinking 


■  !■■■■  ■  ■■  W^i"— i— — |1Hi^i»*^%— fc— .wni 


Chap.  XXVII.        SLOMBEK  —  GHIEUK  DAGH.  441 

of  former  times  I  asked  what  pasha  had  cut  it  off. 
"  Oh,"  said  the  suridjee,  "  it  was  pasha P 

This  Slombek,  though  scarcely  seen  from  the  plain, 
was  large  and  populous,  but  many  of  the  houses  were 
mere  huts,  and  the  interior  of  the  village  was  filthy  in 
the  extreme,  although  beautiful  streams  of  water,  de- 
scending from  the  wooded  hills,  were  running  all  about 
it.  At  a  few  minutes  before  noon  we  gladly  quitted 
the  barbarous  place,  although  we  did  so  under  a  heavy 
shower  of  rain. 

Our  descent  to  the  plain  was  precipitous ;  the  path, 
for  a  good  way,  was  m  a  hollow  water-course,  where 
the  mud  was  two  or  three  feet  deep.  At  12.30 
P.M.  we  rode  throi^h  a  very  small  and  wretched  Turkish 
hamlet^  where  the  huts  and  hovels  were  made  of  the 
trunks  of  trees,  as  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Kutayah. 
Shortly  after  this  we  regained  the  hgh  road — one  of  the 
principal  roads  of  the  Ottoman  Empire — and  a  detest- 
able, break-leg,  break-arm  road  it  was  I  A  narrow, 
rough,  stone  causeway,  often  under  water  in  winter,  and 
now  having  deep  mud,  swamps  and  bogs,  on  either 
side,  slippery,  broken,  ftiU  of  deep  holes,  and  at  times 
reduced  to  a  mere  ridge  of  rough  stones,  d  dos  (Tdnej 
and  barely  two  feet  wide,  ran  eastward  to  the  shores  of 
the  lake.  When  the  heats  of  summer  dry  the  plain, 
travellers  cut  across  it  and  leave  the  causeway  a  tous  les 
diabUs. 

We  were  now  right  under  the  loftiest  part  of  the 
beautiful  Ghieuk  Dagh  or  Heaven  Mountain,  which 
bounds  the  Nicomedian  plain  on  the  souths  and  stretches 
eastward  along  the  lake.  It  is  about  5000  feet  high ;  it 
is  most  densely  wooded  from  base  to  summit,  the  bold 


442  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVn. 

picturesque  tops  being  fringed  witih  pine-trees.  It 
afibrds  a  great  variety  of  timber,  and  it  was  here  that 
Mr.  N.  Davis  selected  the  young  trees  for  the  Sultan's 
model  &rm.  The  mountain  sends  down  to  liie  plain 
hundreds  of  little  cascades  and  streamlets  of  the  brightest 
water.  The  sounds  of  running  waters  were  heard  at 
every  step.  We  had  water  from  above  as  well  as  water 
below,  for  the  rain  now  came  down  in  torrents.  Aa 
we  advanced  we  got  engaged  in  a  forest  which  stretches 
from  the  roots  of  the  mountain,  across  the  plain,  and 
down  to  the  western  end  of  the  Sabanjah  Lake.  Plane- 
trees,  hard  oaks,  evei^reen  ilices,  firs,  maples,  moun- 
tain ashes,  elms,  beeches,  chesnut-trees,  were  growing 
all  together,  in  a  way  I  never  saw  before ;  but  all  were 
neglected  and  left  to  themselves,  and  growing  so  thickly 
that  none  could  attain  to  their  friU  dimensions.  With 
a  little  clearing — with  a  slight  employment  of  the 
woodman's  craft — here  might  be  some  of  the  finest 
timber  in  the  world  I  We  met  a  few  screaming  arubas 
carrying  sticks  for  house-building.  Except  these  poor 
materials,  and  a  little  charcoal,  the  Turks  now  derive 
nothing  from  these  immense  forests  and  woodlands* 
Formerly,  when  a  government  dockyard  was  in  activity 
at  Nicomedia,  they  cut  a  little  timber  here  and  in  the 
region  above.  Abounding  in  fine'  forests  near  the 
coasts,  Bithynia  was  of  old  a  great  ship-building 
country.  The  Sultans  had  another  dock-yard,  in  the 
Gulf  of  Moudania,  close  to  Ghio,  but  that  also  is  aban- 
doned, and  now  the  proud  ^^  Bithynian  keel "  no  longer 
braves  the  Carpathian  or  any  other  sea.* 

*  **  Quicunque  Bithyna  laoessit 

Carpaihium  Pelagus  carinft.'*— Hor.,  L.  1,  Od.  xxxv. 


Chap.  XXVH.  MEN-CATCHERS.  44a 

At  2  P.M.  we  reached  a  miserable  derverU :  there  was 
a  low  coffee-house-and-guard-house  on  one  side  of  the 
road,  and  a  backal's  shop  on  the  odier ;  and  in  a  green 
glen,  traversed  by  a  beautifiil  stream,  a  little  in  the  rear 
of  the  shop,  was  a  rude  Turkish  mill.  We  had  scarcely 
dismounted  at  the  coffee-house  and  got  out  of  the  heavy 
rain,  when  some  of  our  friends  of  yesterday — the  men- 
catchers — rode  up.  They  had  left  Nicomedia  some 
hours  after  us,  and  had  got  thus  far  on  their  journey 
into  the  interior.  They  were  in  a  pitiful  plight — in  a 
worse  plight  than  ourselves — they  were  drenched  with 
rain,  and  bespattered  all  over  with  mud.  Some  of  them 
had  cotton  umbrellas,  but  these  had  been  slight  pro- 
tection in  such  a  deluge.  The  Imaums,  with  their 
loose  robes  and  big  white  muslin  turbans,  drenched 
through  and  through  and  dripping,  looked  particularly 
miserable,  and  much  sourer  than  they  did  yesterday.  The 
fat  colonel,  who  could  hardly  dismount  with  the  help  of 
two  men,  ^ew  off  a  long  brown  cloak  that  was  stream- 
ing widi  water,  and  exhibited  himself  in  his  turquoise 
blue  jacket  and  an  enormous  pair  of  mud  boots  which 
reached  to  his  hips :  he  was  all  boots  and  jacket.  He 
grunted  and  groaned  heavily  as  he  sat  on  a  wicker  stool 
and  sipped  a  small  cup  of  coffee.  It  was  marvellous 
how,  on  a  sorry  hack,  so  heavy  a  man  had  got  along 
the  causeway  and  reached  this  place.  Some  of  the 
officers  and  men,  after  taking  coffee,  went  over  together 
to  the  backal's  shop  to  take  some  chasse-cafS^  in  the 
shape  of  raki — and  it  was  a  good  quantity  of  ardent 
spirit  they  took  among  them.  It  was  as  motley  a 
group  as  ever  belonged  to  an  army  calling  itself  regular. 
Some  were  foot  soldiers  and  some  belonged  to  the 


444  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVO. 

cavalry  of  the  imperial  guard ;  but  all  were  travelling 
on  horseback  and  were  cavaliers  for  the  time.  They 
were  going  on  to-night  to  the  village  of  Sabanjah. 
As  that  village  was  a  poor  little  place,  we  were  sure  to 
find  no  lodging  there,  unless  we  chose  to  lodge  tc^ther 
with  some  of  these  Turks.  We  therefore  determined 
to  give  up  that  journey  and  content  ourselves  with  a 
view  of  the  lake  from  this  end  of  it 

Having  finished  their  pipes,  the  men-catchers  re- 
newed their  journey  under  an  unabating  deluge  of  rain. 
A  few  of  them  had  brought  their  regulation  saddles 
with  them,  but  the  *  greater  part  rode  on  the  bare 
wooden  pack-saddles  of  the  country. 

We  were  told  it  was  only  a  ride  of  ten  minutes  dowu 
to  the  end  of  the  lake.  We  started  at  2.30  p.m.  to  find 
that  the  trip  occupied  us  good  three  quarters  of  an  hour. 
It  was  one  of  our  very  worst  rides.  Under  the  guid- 
ance of  a  Turk,  who  knew  the  spots  where  there  was 
danger  of  man  and  horse  being  bogged  or  drowned,  we 
went  through  thick  wood,  and  thicker  underwood, 
through  deep  mud  and  slush,  across  streams  and  pools, 
the  rain  descending  heavily  all  the  while.  Our  suridjee 
nearly  went  with  his  horse  into  one  of  the  deep  pools. 
He  had  gone  too  far  to  the  right  ^^  Jhannurrij^*  said 
the  guide,  '^  keep  a  little  this  way,  or  we  shall  never  see 
thee  again.*'  We  dismounted  two  or  three  times  to 
avoid  being  knocked  ofi^  by  the  brandies  of  the  trees,  or 
to  cross  some  water  by  walking  over  the  slippery  stem 
of  a  tree  laid  down  for  a  bridge*  At  this  extremity 
the  lake  is  completely  screened  by  the  dense  wood, 
^hich  forms  a  broad  unhealthy  belt  between  it  and  the 
plain  of  Nicomedia. 


Chap.  XXVn.      SABANJ AH  LAKE  —  MALARIA.  445 

Within  these  tangled  groves  and  thickets  is  an  im- 
mensity of  water,  mostly  produced  by  the  annual  over- 
flowing of  the  lake;  this  water  begins  to  evaporate 
in  the  month  of  May,  or  as  soon  as  the  hot  weather 
sets  in ;  at  the  same  time  a  prodigious  decomposi- 
tion of  vegetable  matter  goes  on,  and  the  broad  belt 
prevents  the  free  circulation  of  the  air  and  breezes  from 
the  lake  down  the  valley  to  the  gul^  and  from  the  gulf 
up  the  valley  to  the  lake.  Hence  a  tremendous  foyer 
of  the  worst  kind  of  malaria,  a  gigantic  laboratory  of 
poison  and  disease  I  This  kills  at  the  Fabrica,  at  the 
town  of  Nicomedia,  and  on  the  hill  villages.  There  is 
no  escape  from  it  except  at  the  very  summits  of  the 
mountain.  In  such  regions,  near  hills  are  generally 
found  worse  than  the  level  plain.  From  the  l£^e  down 
to  the  gulf  is  a  distance  of  barely  twelve  English  miles. 
Standing  on  a  projecting  ridge  near  Slombek,  we  saw 
both  gulf  and  lake ;  the  lake  seemed  to  be  the  higher  of 
the  two,  and  I  should  say  that  there  was  a  slight  decli- 
nation all  through  the  valley  or  plain  from  east  to  west. 
The  waters  were  running  not  towards  the  lake,  but 
from  the  lake  towards  the  gulf.  The  plain  was  cut  in 
the  midst  by  the  bed  of  a  river,  which  flowed  from  east 
to  west,  and  had  its  choked-up  mouth  near  the  town  of 
Nicomedia.  If  this  river — called  by  the  Turks  the 
Kara-sou — had  its  source  in  the  Ghieuk  Dagh,  it  cer- 
tainly was  receiving  at  this  season  contributions  from 
the  waters  of  the  lake  through  the  belt  of  wood.  In 
some  parts  the  bed  of  this  river  was  deep,  between 
good  strong  natural  banks ;  but  in  other  parts  it  was 
shallow  and  obstructed ;  the  winter  and  spring  torrents 
had  eaten  into  the  soil,  and  there  the  waters  filled  the 


lUt  J>  ■ 


446  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Gb4F.  XXVH- 

hoUawfi,  spread  over  the  champaign,  and  were  left  to 
stagnate  and  evaporate.  Clear  out  the  entrance  to  this 
river  Oil  the  side  of  the  lake,  clear  out  its  mouth  on  the 
guU^  deepen  its  bed  or  embank  it  where  necessary,  train 
the  mountain  streams  to  fall  into  it,  cut  down  that  hor- 
rible belt  of  wood,  let  in  air  and  free  ventilation,  and 
you  remove  at  once  the  pestilence  which  desolates  a 
most,  beautifiil  and  a  fertile  region.  But  when  will  the 
Turks  do  this?  Qiuindo  mail  There  could  have 
been  no  such  deadly  forest,  no  such  swamps  in  the  time 
of  the  ancient  Greeks,  when  the  country  teemed  with 
population,  and  was  celebrated  for  its  wealth  and  the 
salubrity  of  its  climate.  The  great  causes  must  have 
existed  then  as  now  ;  there  must  have  been  the  same 
lake,  the  same  streams  running  from  the  mountains 
into  the  valley,  and  the  same  tendency  to  a  rapid  and 
rank  vegetation ;  but  those  energetic  men  of  old  must 
have  attended  to  drainage,  and  have  kept  down  the 
growth  of  flie  woods. 

At  last  we  came  out  upon  the  mar^n  of  the  Saban- 
jah  (invisible  until  we  were  upon  it),  and  stood  dripping 
among  the  reeds  and  bulrushes.  It  was  a  fine  sheet  of 
fresh  water,  lying  within  a  picturesque  frame  of  hills 
and  mountains.  Here  it  was  scarcely  a  mile  broad ; 
but  a  little  to  the  east  it  widened,  and  became  a  grand 
expanse.  The  total  length  was  about  ten  English 
miles.  On  our  right  hand,  on  the  southern  side,  were 
the  lofty  crests,  the  bold  declivities,  and  the  thick 
forests  of  ihe  Ghieuk  Dagh.  On  the  northern  sid^  the 
hills  were  of  moderate  elevation,  and  sloped  gently 
down  to  the  water.  Our  guide  there  pointed  out  an 
extensive  chiftlik  belonging  to  Osman  Bey,  the  governor 


Ghap.XXVIL  SABANJAH--.ABMASH--ADAB  BAZAAB.    447 

of  Nicomedia.  The  village  of  Sabanjah  stands  about 
midway  up  the  lake,  over  the  south  bank^  and  there  is 
a  Greek  Moncuiir  behind  it  of  no  great  note.  On  the 
opposite  bank,  or  rather  in  the  hills  about  a  mile  from 
the  lake,  stands  Armash,  a  very  famous  Armenian  mo- 
nastery and  place  of  pilgrimage.  Hither  the  Armenians 
resort  for  a  miraculous  cure  of  their  fevers  and  other 
ailments ;  and  here  a  grand  religious  festival  is  held 
annually,  attended  by  an  enormity  of  raki  drinking,  and 
a  prodigality  of  donations  to  the  illiterate  Eutycheaa 
priests. 

Towards  the  head  of  the  lake  the  hills  fall  away 
on  either  side,  and  the  laud  beyond  is  a  perfect  cham- 
paign. Adar  Bazaar  is  there  situated.  It  stands 
in  a  dead  flat,  and  being  surrounded  and  intermixed 
with  trees  and  gardens,  it  is  scarcely  vbible  from  any 
side,  although  a  large  town,  and  very  populous  in  Ar- 
menians. It  is  a  place  which  takes  a  high  standing  in 
the  list  of  the  American  missionaries.  We  were  told  that 
travellers  often  passed  dose  by  it  without  being  aware 
of  its  importance,  or  even  of  its  existence.  It  must  be 
dreadfully  unhealthy ;  but,  being  oa  one  of  the  high 
roads  or  tracks  into  the  interior^  it  is  a  place,  for  this 
country,  of  very  considerable  trade.  This  transit  trade 
attracts  the  Armenians.  The  lake  abounds  in  fish; 
the  industrious,  persevering  Cossacks  of  Lake  Magnass 
come  and  fish  the  waters  at  certain  seasons ;  but  the 
peofde  living  on  the  banks  are  too  stupid,  or  too  indo- 
lent, to  derive  much  benefit  from  the  fish :  they  merely 
make  wicker  inclosures  and  traps  near  the  shore,  and 
at  the  mouths  of  streams  which  fall  into  the  lake.  We 
did  not  see  a  boat,  skifi^  punt,  or  canoe  upon  the  broad 


448  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVH. 

waters.*  At  the  proper  season  this  is  a  glorious  place 
for  duck-shooting,  for  wild  swans,  and  other  aquatic 
game.  On  account  of  the  difficulties  of  approach  few 
amateur  sportsmen  ever  come  near  it  We  were  told 
that  near  the  Greek  monastery,  behind  the  village  of 
Sabanjah,  and  at  one  or  two  other  places  round  the 
lake,  there  were  some  slight  remains  of  antiquity. 
Since  the  days  of  old  Paul  Lucas,  who  in  the  year 
1706  took  this  route  to  tiie  interior,  the  region  has 
never  been  examined,  and  but  seldom  traversed,  by  a 
civilized  European.f  I  should  think  that,  between  the 
east  head  of  the  lake  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Sangarius 
river,  traces  of  several  ancient  towns  might  be  disco- 
vered. Much  reliance  is  not  to  be  placed  in  the  people 
of  the  country,  who  make  no  distinction  between  Helle- 
nic and  Byzantine  remains — between  a  classical  temple 
and  a  monastir  or  church ;  but  they  told  us  there  were 
many  ruins  a  few  miles  to  the  north-east  of  the  lake. 

We  returned  to  the  derventj  as  wet  as  drowned  rats, 
reaching  that  miserable  place  about  an  hour  before 
simset  We  made  a  large  wood  fire  in  the  coffee  house, 
and  having  brought  no  change  with  us,  we  dried  our 
clothes  while  we  wore  them.     It  was  too  late  to  think 

*  Pococke,  who  speaks  of  its  immense  carp,  says  that  in  his  time  they 
fished  the  lake  in  *'  boats  hollowed  out  of  one  piece  of  wood." 

Sad  as  are  the  descriptions  of  the  state  of  the  country  given  hy  this 
truthful  old  traveller,  I  never  found  myself  on  his  track  without  seeing 
that  his  had  had  become  vH>ne.  He  speaks  with  rapture  of  the  beauty  and 
fertility  of  the  country  along  the  south  side  of  the  Sabaujah  ;  it  exceeded 
everything  he  had  seen ;  there  were  no  stones  in  it  1  Now  it  exhibits 
nothing  but  stones  and  boulders  brought  down  by  the  mountain  torrents, 
and  wild  tangled  woods  I 

f  Pococke  was  here  in  1740 ;  Mr.  D.  Morier  in  1809  ;  Col.  Macdonald 
Kinneir  in  1814  :  but  these  travellers  kept  a  straight  oomne,  and  did  not 
diverge  to  the  north  of  the  lake  towards  the  Euxine. 


Chap.  XXVII.    PRECAUTION  AGAINST  MALARIA.  449 

of  returning  to  Nicomedia  by  such  roads,  and  as  the 
cafe  was  the  lodging-place  of  five  or  six  Turkish  irre- 
gulars, and  a  mere  baraque  with  a  roof  by  no  means 
water-tight,  we  went  across  the  way  to  the  backal's,  and 
took  possession  of  a  room  over  the  shop.  It  was  a 
small  room,  with  a  very  creaky  floor,  and  with  windows 
which  had  no  sashes ;  but  it  was  tolerably  clean,  and 
had  a  tiled  roof  impervious  to  the  rain,  which  continued 
as  if  it  meant  to  cease  never/  The  backal  (a  Greek) 
made  a  bright  wood-fire  for  us,  and  gave  us  a  rice  soup, 
a  boiled  fowl,  and  some  first-rate  raki.  We  measured 
the  comforts  of  a  night's  lodging  by  fleas  or  no  fleas, 
bugs  or  no  bugs.  Here  there  were  none.  We  kept 
the  fire  burning  all  night,  and,  under  similar  circum- 
stances— in  such  damp  places — I  would  earnestly  re- 
commend all  travellers  to  do  the  same.  Judging  firom 
past  experience,  in  Turkey  and  iu  other  countries,  I 
should  say  that,  even  in  hot  weather,  a  fire  ought  to  be 
kept  up  at  night  where  one  sleeps :  it  may  be  unplea- 
sant, but  it  is  almost  sure  to  keep  ofi*  the  malaria  fiend. 
With  good  wood  fires  at  night,  I  have  slept  at  Vico  di 
Pantano,  at  Factum,  in  the  Pontine  Marshes,  and  on- 
the  skirts  of  the  Tuscan  Maremme,  in  the  perilous 
months,  and  without  feeling  the  malaria. 

The  next  morning  we  were  up  by  times.  The  tem- 
pest of  rain  was  over ;  the  sky  was  without  a  cloud ;  the 
sun  was  shining  out  beautifiilly,  and  a  beautiful  wood- 
land scenery  was  all  around  us.  We  were  in  the  heart 
of  a  wood,  with  the  lofty,  wooded  Ghieuk  Dagh,  or 
Heaven  Mountain,  above  our  heads.  The  trees  were 
waving  in  the  morning  breeze,  shaking  oflF  the  wet  of 
yesterday  and  last  night ;  the  torrents,  streamlets,  and 

VOL.  II.  2  Q 


450  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XX\^L 

runnels  were  dashing,  racing,  babbling,  and  glittering 
in  the  bright  morning  light;  the  few  cocks  of  the  vil- 
lage were  crowing  and  singing  out  cheerily ;  some  grey- 
hounds of  a  spoiled  Angora  breed  were  skipping  about 
the  backal's  door,  and  the  few  irregulars  of  the  guard,  in 
the  old  Turkish  costume,  and  with  their  bright  turbans 
— reds,  greens,  and  yellows — shining  in  the  sun,  were 
seated  cross-legged  in  front  of  the  cafe  smoking  their 
first  tchibouques. 

We  mounted  our  hacks,  and  rode  slowly  back  to  the 
imperial  cloth  manufactory,  where  we  were  again  most 
heartily  welcomed  by  the  good  Belgians.  M.  Brixh^ 
the  director,  was  away  with  his  family  at  Ismitt,  cdl  of 
them  being  sick.  The  men  took  us  over  the  works,  and 
showed  us  everything.  The  work-rooms  were  lofty, 
very  spacious,  airy,  well  lighted,  and  really  excellent ; 
but  very  little  work  was  doing  in  them.  At  most  two 
or  three  dozen  of  Armenians  were  assembled,  and  they 
seemed  half  asleep.  There  was  first-rate  machinery 
from  England,  France,  and  Belgium,  but  the  mass  of 
it  was  English,  and  fitted  up  here  on  the  spot  by  Eng- 
lishmen. There  was  a  most  splendid  water-power — 
water  enough  to  drive  a  hundred  factories — and  there 
was  an  English  iron  hydraulic  wheel  of  large  diameter, 
which  set  all  the  machinery  in  motion,  and  was  a  beau- 
tiful object  in  itselfj  and  admirably  fitted  up.  The  Bel- 
gians, much  to  their  credit,  had  kept  this  fine  wheel  in 
admirable  order.  .  But  all  praise  must  end  with  the 
building  and  the  machinery.  Everything  was  as  exe- 
crably managed  as  at  Zeitoun  Bournu  and  Macri-keui. 
There  was  no  system  unless  it  was  the  system  of  gas^ 
pillage.     Badly  as  I  had  thought  of  the  conduct  of  the 


■■■■-fc.'USU    J^ 


Chap.  XXVII.    IMPERIAL  CLOTH  MANUFACTORY.  451 

Dadians,  I  was  scarcely  prepared  for  what  I  heard  in 
this  place.  They  were  constantly  doing  and  undoing, 
building  up  and  knocking  down,  and  then  building  up 
again  as  before ;  they  shut  their  ears  to  all  sensible  and 
honest  advice,  telling  every  honest  man,  "  This  is  not 
your  afiair — this  does  not  concern  you  1"  Before  they 
built  the  great  Falnrica  here,  they  well  knew  them- 
selves, and  were  repeatedly  told  by  others,  that  the  air 
was  pestilential,  that  the  natives  could  not  live  in  this 
place,  and  much  less  Europeans;  that  there  were 
several  places  in  the  neighbourhood  (with  good  water 
power)  that  were  perfectly  healthy:  but  Itere  they 
would  have  it,  and  here  they  erected  their  pest-house. 
The  expenditure  of  the  Sultan's  money  had  been  enor- 
mous. Besides  the  separate  lodging-house  for  the 
Europeans,  they  had  built  an  immense  barrack  of  a 
place  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Armenian  working 
people,  and  they  had  traced  out  a  regular  or  irregular 
village ;  for  this  place  was  to  be  in  brief  time  another 
Leeds,  the  great  cloth  manufacturing  town  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire !  But  there  was  no  keeping  together  a 
regular  resident  population ;  the  Armenians  would  not 
sleep  here  in  the  summer  and  autumn ;  long  before  the 
approach  of  night  they  all  ran  away  to  the  villages  on 
the  hills.  For  six  months  in  the  year  the  great  barrack 
was  useless ;  and  even  in  the  winter  time  the  people 
preferred  their  own  villages.  In  all  there  were  said  to 
be  about  150  Armenians,  men  and  boys,  employed 
about  the  Fabrica,  but  very  few  of  these  had  learned 
the  mystery  of  cloth  making,  and  as  most  of  them  had 
mulberry  gardens  or  vineyards,  or  a  field  or  two  of 
com  land,  and  as  they  were  irregularly  paid,  they  were 

2g2 


452  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVII. 

very  irregular  in  their  attendance.  Eleven  good  fulling 
machines  were  sent  out  from  England,  but  there  was 
only  one  fulling  machine  (French)  at  work.  The 
others  were  broken,  scattered,  and  could  hardly  be  fitted 
up  at  all.  The  fuller — a  decent  Frenchman — ^with  his 
one  machine,  could  not  keep  pace  with  the  looms,  and 
he  had  been  imploring  for  many  months  that  they 
would  get  him  other  fulling  machines. 

They  keep  on  spinning  wool  and  weaving  cloth ;  and 
when  the  cloth  is  made,  as  only  a  small  portion  of  it  can 
be  fulled,  the  mass  of  it  is  thrown  into  a  damp  magazine. 
Land  rats  and  water  rats  swarm.     The  grease  in  the 
unfulled  cloth  attracts  the  destructive  vermin,  and  the 
rats  eat  the  cloth  and  make  their  nests  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  unpressed  bales.     "  You  cannot  take  up  a  piece 
of  cloth  without  finding  it  defiled  and  gnawed,  and  with 
holes  through  and  through  it."     So  said  the  intelligent 
Frenchman,  who  would  have  given  us  ocular  demonstra- 
tion if  the  stench  of  that  depot  had  not  driven  us  from 
the  door.     In   his  own  mind  he  had  formed  twenty 
different  theories  about  the   Armenian  management; 
but  he  had  given  them  all  up,  and  had,  indeed,  given 
up  the  whole  subject  as  an  unfathomable  mystery.     He 
could  allow  a  great  deal  for  ignorance,  obstinacy,  and 
conceit,   but  this  would  not   carry  him  through   the 
question,  for  blunders  were  committed  that  no  amount 
of  ignorance  could  account  for :  he  could  also  allow  a 
great  deal  for  roguery  and  gaspillage,  but  then  so  many 
things  were  done  which  looked  like  a  gaspillage  upon 
themselves — so  much   was    like    roguery   committing 
suicide  upon  itself. 

Most  of  the  cloth  manufactured  was  coarse,  porous, 


Chap.  XXVII.    IMPERIAL  CLOTH  MANUFACTORY.  453 

« 

wretched  stuff;  when  turned  into  soldiers'  cloaks  or 
jackets  there  was  no  wear  in  it.  The  whole  quantity 
was  of  no  amount :  four  years  ago  the  Fabrica  was  to 
clothe  the  whole  regular  army,  but  it  never  had  clothed 
a  fiftieth  part  of  it.  N.ow  and  then  the  Sultan  and  some 
of  his  household  got  a  blue  frock  coat  a- piece  out  of  the 
Fabrica,  but  this  fine  cloth  cost  its  weight  in  gold — 
or  more.  "  It  would  be  very  odd,"  said  one  of  the 
Belgians,  "  if  we  could  not  turn  out  a  piece  of  the 
finest  cloth  occasionally,  seeing  that  we  have  the  best 
machinery  of  England  and  France,  that  the  finest  of 
wools  for  the  purpose  are  imported,  via  Trieste,  from 
Saxony  and  the  best  wool  countries,  and  that  we. 
Frenchmen  and  Belgians,  work  it.  You  could  not  call 
it  Turkish  cloth — it  was  only  cloth  made  in  Turkey  by 
European  machinery,  out  of  European  material,  and  by 
good  European  hands.  We  made  it  as  the  English 
before  us  made  it.  As  for  the  Turks,  we  must  leave 
them  out  of  the  question,  for  they  hate  regular  labour 
and  will  not  work  here ;  but  take  these  Armenians ; 
they  could  not  make  fine  cloth — and  it  will  be  long 
before  they  learn — and  leave  this  machinery  in  their 
hands  without  any  Franks,  and  in  a  month  they  would 
spoil  and  ruin  it  all.  They  have  no  order,  no  neatness 
or  cleanliness,  no  mechanical  skill." 

The  Frenchman  and  an  old  German  were  fiilly  sen- 
sible of  the  absurdity  of  attempting  to  force  on  manu- 
factures in  a  most  fertile  country  where  agriculture 
was  in  its  very  earliest  infancy.  With  the  money  which 
has  beenal  ready  spent  in  this  place  alone  the  Sultan 
might  have  drained  these  stagnant  waters,  might  have 
cut  down  the  thick  belt  of  wood  and  underwood  by  thd 


454  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVI  I. 

lake,  might  have  made  a  distribution  of  proper  ploughs 
and  other  agricultural  implements,  might  have  restored 
this  rich  and  beautiful  plain  to  perfect  salubrity.  Again 
I  must  say  that  it  made  the  heart  sick  and  sad  to  see 
these  profligate,  blundering  prqceedings  of  the  Arme- 
nians— for  they,  and  not  the  Turks,  are  the  fathers  of 
these  manufacturing  establishments,  and  the  sole  di- 
rectors of  them. 

Where  there  was  so  much  machinery,  And  so  much 
breakage  (at  the  hands  of  the  clumsy  Armenians), 
occasional  castings  in  iron  and  brass  were  necessary. 
Instead  of  having  this  work  done  at  Constantinople  the 
Dadians  had  resolved  to  have  it  all  done  here  on  the 
spot,  and  therefore  they  were  now  building  a  wooden 
structure  to  serve  as  a  foundry,  close  to  the  wooden 
lodging-house  of  the  Belgians — so  close  that  there  was 
scarcely  room  to  pass  between  them.  And  this  in  a 
place  where  ground  was  of  no  value,  where  all  the 
ground*  to  the  extent  of  at  least  200  acres,  appertained 
to  the  imperial  Fabrica ! !  *  The  foundry,  if  it  ever  be 
finished,  will  take  fire  some  day,  and  the  two  contiguous 
wooden  buildings  will  blaze  together.  ''  Cela  brdkra ! 
Un^beaujour  le  tout  brulera  I  et  cest  ce  qxiU  a  de  mieux 
a  faire  I "  So  said  an  honest  Belgian  in  the  bitterness 
of  his  soul.  Water  there  was  in  abundance ;  but  there 
was  not  even  a  Turkish  fire-engine,  or  so  much  'as  a  fire- 
bucket  on  the  premises.  Mother  earth  covers  the 
blunders  and  rascalities  of  quack-doctors;  a  sudden 
conflagration  here,  and  at  Zeitoun  Bournu,  at  Macri- 
keui,  and  the  other  places  where  they  have  pretended 
to  establish  manufactories,  might  be  favourable  to  the 
character  of  the  Armenians. 


.^,^.  , : 


Chap.  XXVU.    IMPERIAL  CLOTH  MANUFACTORY.  455 

Besides  being  bent  down  by  sickness,  bad  food,  bad 
lodging,  and  mortal  ennui,  the  Europeans,  one  and  all, 
were  utterly  disheartened  by  the  conviction  that,  as  far 
as  utility  was  concerned,  they  were  doing  far  worse 
than  nothing.  This  is  a  conviction  that  takes  all  heart 
out  of  a  man,  and  (if  lasting)  nearly  all  morality.  The 
very  felons  that  were  first  sent  to  our  tread-mill — the 
foes  of  society,  or  the  men  to  whom  society  was  a 
foe — trod  the  Sisyphus  steps  with  another  heart 
when  they  knew  that  their  labour  was  not  useless, 
that  the  rotations  of  the  wheel  tended  to  a  productive 
labour. 

Besides  eleven  Belgians  and  the  one  Frenchman 
there  were  now  here  four  Germans — the  last  but 
lately  arrived.  They  were  bringing  out  two  more 
Belgians  to  supply  the  places  of  those  who  died  last 
year.  Poor  fellows !  they  little  knew  what  they  were 
coming  to.  The  only  European  that  had  escaped  the 
fevers  was  the  Frenchman,  who  told  us  that  he  had 
dosed  himself  copiously  with  raki.  Of  the  men  whom 
we  had  seen  yesterday  two  were  too  ill  this  morning 
to  descend  from  their  village,  and  three  were  laid  pros- 
trate in  the  lodging-house.  There  was  not  one  sound 
liver  among  them  all  I  They  all  looked  forward'  with 
dread  to  the  hot  and  autumnal  months,  saying  that  if 
they  were  so  ill  now,  they  must  be  much  worse  then  I  I 
advised  them  to  put  up  with  pecuniary  loss,  and  to 
"  cut  and  run  "  in  order  to  save  their  lives.  Some  of 
them  seemed  much  inclined  to  take  this  advice;  but 
others  demurred,  for  if  they  fulfilled  the  term  of  their 
contract  the  heavy  expenses  of  the  journey  back  to  their 
own  country  were  to  be  paid  by  the  Government  oi* 


•mmm 


-m^ 


456 


TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVIL 


Hohannes  Dadian.*  I  believe  that  their  contract  bound 
them  to  remain  some  twelve  months  longer ;  and  I  also 
believe  that  if  they  stayed  through  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1 848  half  of  them  must  have  died  there,  and 
the  other  half  have  gone  home  with  ruined  consti- 
tutions. 

The  Armenians  had  engaged  a  Frank  doctor  to  drive 
away  the  fevers,  which  was  work  rather  to  be  done  by 
a  civil-engineer.  In  the  house  we  found  Signor 
Carones,  a  very  gentlemanly  Piedmontese,  who  was 
medecin  en  chef  to  this  "  Imperial  Fabrica."  He  had 
not  been  here  long,  and  he  confessed  that  he  was  sadly 
perplexed  by  the  obstinate  and  dreadful  intermittents 
which  would  not  yield  to  the  sulphate  of  quinine. 

The  only  visible  woman  now  about  the  place  was  an 
ancient  Greek  washerwoman  who  looked  very  like  a 
witch.  By  some  magical  means  the  poor  people  con- 
trived to  give  the  hekim  and  us  a  very  good  meal. 

At  2-30  P.M.  we  mounted  our  horses  to  ride  with  the 
doctor  to  Nicomedia.  This  time  we  did  not  wade 
through  the  river,  but  crossed  it  by  a  staggering  wooden 
bridge,  near  to  which  stood  a  cafe  and  a  Turkish  corn- 
mill.  The  imperial  courier  from  Bagdad,  with  his 
letter-bags,  suridjees,  and  three  or  four  sadly  stained 
travellers,  was  halting  at  the  coffee-house.  The  kind 
and  polite  Piedmontese  amused  us  'with  accounts  of 
some  of  his  journeys  in  the  country,  his  distant  visits  to 
sick  Turks,  and  his  various  adventures.  He  had  seen 
little  but  an  increase  of  misery  and  a  decrease  of  Mus- 
sulman population*  He  spoke  quite  affectionately  of 
the  simple,  honest,  docile  peasantry. 

^  These  poor  men^kad  been  Irft  nine  months  without  any  pay. 


-J 


Chap.  XXVn.      TRIP  TO  THE  SILK  FACTORY.  457 

We  entered  Nicomedia  at  4  p.bi.,  just  as  a  procession 
of  dancing-boys,  followed  by  a  troop  of  the  governor's 
cavasses  or  policemen,  came  down  the  principal  street 
and  entered  a  coffee-house  near  the  lower  cemetery, 
wherein  they  were  to  make  their  revolting  exhibitions. 
"  The  march,'*  said  an  indignant  Greek,  "  is  not  quite 
complete ;  the  governor's  cavasses  are  in  the  rear,  but 
the  governor  himself  and  his  kadi  ought  to  be  at  the 
head!"  We  walked  about  the  town  and  heard  sad 
complaints  of  the  conduct  of  the  men-catchers  who  had 
started  from  the  place  yesterday  morning.  Though  the 
Tanzimaut  abolishes  the  ancient  system  of  purveyance, 
and  strictly  forbids  any  soldier  or  oflScer  to  take  what 
he  does  not  pay  for,  and  thoi^h  money  is  given  for 
travelling  expenses,  olBScers  and  men  had  helped  them- 
selves at  Ismitt  to  whatever  they  wanted,  and  had  gone 
away  without  paying  anybody.  Then  they  had  pressed 
into  their  service  so  many  poor  men  and  their  horses  to 
carry  them  up  to  Adar  Bazaar.  Half  of  the  horses 
would  be  lamed ;  and  what  security  was  there  for  pay- 
ment? If  the  military  could  behave  thus,  so  near  the 
capital,  one  may  fancy  the  little  restraint  they  would 
put  upon  themselves  when  far  away  in  the  interior. 

On  Tuesday  the  18th  of  April,  at  8  a.m.,  we  set  out 
by  water  for  the  Imperial  Silk  Factory  at  Herek-keui. 
Our  boatmen  were  Armenians,  and  very  sullen,  dirty, 
and  awkward  fellows.  About  half  a  mile  from  the 
town  we  landed  to  visit  the  neglected  grave  of  an 
Hungarian  Prince  and  (qy.  ?)  Patriot  We  walked 
through  some  Greek  market-gardens,  which  were  less 
slovenly  than  most  we  had  seen.  We  passed  some 
ruins  of  the  Lower  Empire — low  brick  arches^  which 


458  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXVII. 

apparently  had  once  formed  a  circular  inclosure.  The 
place  had  probably  been  an  amphitheatre.  Just  beyond 
these  ruins,  at  the  distance  of  half  a  mile  from  the 
gulf,  was  the  Armenian  cemetery,  on  a  flat  pleasant 
meadow,  dotted  with  small  groves  of  oaks  and  plane- 
trees.  It  was  a  choice  Necropolis.  The  views  all 
round  were  beautiful  and  exceedingly  picturesque ;  there 
was  the  steep  conical  town  with  the  ivied  ruins  of  its 
fortress;  there  were  chiftliks  and  villas,  and  Turkish 
burying-grounds  with  their  cypresses,  on  the  sides  of 
the  hills,  which  formed  a  curve  behind  the  meadow ; 
and  the  panorama  was  completed  by  the  blue  gulf  and 
the  grand  wooded  mountains  on  the  opposite  side.  In 
this  Armenian  cemetery  was  the  Hungarian's  grave. 
It  was  covered  by  a  coarse  marble  slab,  prone  with  the 
earth,  battered  by  time  and  weather,  and  so  covered 
with  dirt  as  to  be  in  part  illegible.  I  could  make  out 
only  some  splendid  armorial  bearings  and  quarterings 
at  top,  and  the  following  words : — 

Emerius  Th5ko  de  Kesmark. 
HuNGARi^*  Transylvani-e  Princefs 

tota  eurofa  celebris 
Post  varios  fortune  casus 

HUNGARTiB   LlBERTATIS   SpEM 
EXULE      ♦       ♦       *      FiNEM   FECIT 

In  Asia, 

Ad    NlCOMBDlNENSEM   BlTHYRIiB 


Obi  IT  Anwo  Salutis  1705 
^TATis  47.     Die  13  Seftembris. 


"^"i.—  -r-r- 


Chap.  XXVII.  GRAVE  OF  TEKELI.  459 

It  was  not  until  I  looked  into  good  old  Fococke  that 
I  was  at  all  aware  that  this  Thoko  de  Kesmark  was  the 
Tekeli  of  history  and  Opera  song.*  This  unhappy 
hope  of  liberty  and  of  Hungary  was  the  lord  of  serfs 

*  Pococke  says  :  "  Near  this  Bay  of  Nicomedia  lived  the  famous  Prince 
Tekeli,  or  Thokoly,  at  a  country-house,  which  he  called  *  The  Field  of 
Flowebs.'  He  was  buried  in  the  Armenian  cemetery  at  Ismitt,  and  there 
is  a  Latin  epitaph  on  his  tomb/' 

Archdeacon  Coxe  (*  History  of  the  House  of  Austria '),  after  mentioning 
the  defeat  of  Tekeli  and  the  Turks  in  his  text,  says  in  a  foot-note : — 

"  From  this  period,  Tekeli  passed  the  remainder  of  his  active  and  enter- 
prising life  in  obscurity.  As  the  emperor  refused  either  to  restore  his 
confiscated  property,  or  grant  him  an  equivalent,  the  Sultan  Mustapha 
conferred  on  him  Ley  or  Caransebes,  and  Widdin,  as  a  feudal  sovereignty. 
Mahomet,  the  successor  of  Mustapha,  transferred  him  to  Nicomedia,  where 
he  for  a  time  gave  him  a  splendid  establishment ;  but  he  was  afterwards 
neglected  by  the  Turkish  government,  lodged  in  one  of  the  vilest  streets 
of  Constantinople,  among  Jews  and  the  meaner  sort  of  Armenians,  and 
receiving  only  a  paltry  allowance  for  himself  and  his  family,  was  even 
reduced  to  carry  on  the  trade  of  a  vintner.  It  is  singular  that  this  extra- 
ordinary man,  after  having  roused  the  Protestants  of  Hungary  in  defence 
of  their  doctrines,  should  have  embraced  the  Catholic  religion  towards  the 
close  of  his  life.  He  lamented  to  Prince  Cantemir  the  caprice  of  his  fortune, 
which  had  urged  him  to  abandon  his  lawful  sovereign,  to  throw  himself 
under  the  protection  of  infidel  princes,  whose  inclinations  were  as  wavering 
and  changeful  as  the  crescent  in  their  arms.  He  fell  a  sacrifice  to  chagrin, 
and  dying  at  Constantinople  in  1705,  in  about  his  fiftieth  year,  was  buried 
in  the  Greek  cemetery,  the  place  appropriated  for  the  interment  of  foreign 
ambassadors. — Sact,  torn,  ii-  p.  499 ;  *  History  of  Europe,*  1706,  p.  472." 

'<  His  death  was  preceded  by  that  of  Helena,  his  once  beautiful  wife. 
She  deserves  to  be  commemorated  for  the  unshaken  firmness  with  which 
she  bore  her  own  misfortunes  and  those  of  her  fieunily,  and  her  invariable 
attachment  to  her  husband  in  exile  and  disgrace.  After  defending  the 
castle  of  Mongatz  with  great  gallantry,  she  was  overpowered  by  the  forces 
of  the  imperialists,  and  to  save  her  own  life,  and  the  property  of  her 
family,  resigned  hersebT  and  her  children  to  the  protection  of  the  court  of 
Vienna.  She  herself  was  thrown  into  a  convent,  and  her  children  educated 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Emperor.  She  was  exchanged  for  General 
Heuster,  and  permitted  to  join  her  husband,  though  compelled  to  abandon 
her  children ;  and  from  that  period  she  shared  the  fortunes  and  vicissitudes 
of  his  fate,  and  died  in  1703.—*  History  of  Europe  for  1703,'  p.  494." 

There  ^e  at  least  two  errors  in  these  statements.  Tekeli  died  not  at 
Constantinople,  but  at  Nicomedia ;  and  he.  was  buried  not  in  the  Greek 


460  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVH. 

and  a  member  of  a  fierce  faction  which  allied  itself  with 
the  Turks  and  fought  against  the  House  of  Austria, 
then  the  Eastern  bulwark  of  Christendom.  If  these 
Hungarian  Magnates  had  succeeded  in  carrying  out 
their  mad  scheme,  if  they  had  beaten,  instead  of  being 
conquered  by,  Prince  Eugene,  Hungary  would  now  be 
in  the  wretched  condition  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia. 
I  could  have  little  sympathy  for  such  a  patriot,  but  I 
could  feel  for  the  melancholy  fate  of  the  man.  After 
defeat  he  had  fled  to  Constantinople;  his  allies  the 
Turks,  after  much  harsh  treatment,  had  relegated  him 
in  this  unhealthy  corner  of  Asia,  and  no  doubt  the 
endemic  fever  and  loneliness  and  desolateuess  of  heart 
had  sent  him  to  the  grave  in  the  prime  of  manhood. 
Perhaps  it  was  some  consolation  to  him  that  he  was 
ending  his  days  where  Hannibal  had  finished  his,  and 
that  he  would  be  buried  on  the  same  lonely  coast  as  the 
great  Carthaginian.  Two  or  three  years  ago  the  grave 
of  the  exile  was  visited  by  an  Hungarian  nobleman, 
who  called  himself  a  descendant  of  Kesmark,  and  who 
exhibited  a  great  deal  of  sentimentality  over  it. 
According  to  our  rogue  Giovanni,  who  was  then  his 
drogoman,  he  bathed  the  marble  with  his  tears.     He 

cemetery  there,  but  in  the  Armenian  cemetery  at  Nicomedia.  His  age,  as 
set  forth  in  the  tombstone,  was  forty-seyen. 

He  suffered  great  poverty  and  hardships  under  Mustapha  11. ;  but  it 
appears  that,  when  that  Sultan  had  been  deposed  and  succeeded  by  his 
brother  Achmet  III.,  he  was  granted  a  chiftlik  at  Nicomedia. 

As  Tekeli  and  his  countryman  and  assodate  Prince  Ragottsky  were 
treated  by  the  Turks  in  the  last  century,  so  will  Kossuth  and  his  com- 
panions (if  they  stay  in  the  country)  be  treated  in  this  I 

Bern  and  the  other  patriots  who  have  renounced  their  reli^on  with  bixn 
may  find  employment  in  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid's  army ;  but  this  will  not 
last.  Notwithstanding  their  decay  of  religious  feeling,  the  Turks  Btaptct 
and  hate  rentgades. 


K»Ci- 


Chap.  XXVII.    IMPERIAL  SILK  MAKUPACTORY.  461 

would  have  done  much  better  if  he  had  raised  the  dis- 
honoured slab  from  the  earth,  and  had  erected  a  railing 
round  it  to  secure  it  from  ftirther  violation.  Hard  by 
there  was  a  well-head  made  of  an  ancient  pedestal. 
Such  fragments  were  not  uncommon. 

At  9*45  we  re-embarked.  We  kept  close  under  the 
land  on  the  north  side  of  the  gulf.  In  the  days  of  the 
Bithynian  kings  the  region  was  one  thickly-peopled 
garden :  now,  in  five  hours,  all  that  we  saw  was  one 
small  miserable  village  and  three  detached  farms. 
Except  about  Nicomedia  this  side  of  the  gulf  was  very 
bare  of  trees.  At  about  a  quarter  before  3  p.m.  we 
stepped  on  shore  at  the  Imperial  Silk  Manufactory,  and 
were  greeted  by  the  Piedmontese  doctor,  who  had  ridden 
down  on  horseback,  and  by  a  hearty,  most  hospitable 
Lombard,  one  of  the  directors,  who  took  us  to  his  house, 
which  stood  near  the  beach.  Here  we  found  another 
doctor,  a  Lombard,  aitd  his  wife,  a  neat,  lively  little 
Sardinian.  This  Lombard  hekim  had  charge  of  the 
health  of  all  the  people  employed  here. 

The  Silk  Factory  was  a  large,  tall,  and  rather  stately 
building,  and,  all  together,  the  works  and  dependencies 
formed  quite  a  village,  ruiming  parallel  with  the  gulf 
and  standing  on  an  irregular  but  rather  narrow  flat 
between  the  sea  and  the  mountains.  There  was  one 
really  tolerable  street,  and  there  was  a  shorter  and  nar- 
rower one  between  it  and  the  water.  In  the  better 
street  there  were  long  rows  of  dwelling-houses  for  the 
superintendents,  the  hekim  or  doctor,  the  draftsmen,  the 
engineers,  and  working  people;  and  these  houses,  though 
low,  were  substantially  built.  Here  there  was  the 
inestimable  benefit  of  good  air :  malaria  fevers,  I  was 


l^  462  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVU. 

'  assured,  were  unknown;  and  the  Europeans  all  looked 

healthy.  The  spot  is  too  distant  to  be  affected  by  the 
great  foyer  of  malaria  above  Nicomedia,  and  it  has  no 
stagnating  waters  in  its  vicinity,  the  stream  which  sets 
the  works  in  motion  descending  in  a  steep  bed  from 
calcareous  rocks  close  at  hand,  and  having  a  rapidly 
declining  bed  and  a  free  outlet  to  the  gulf.  Indeed 
there  is  scarcely  a  spot  where  the  water  could  make  a 
lodgment.  The  Lombard  hekim  was  hipped  by  the 
dulness  of  the  place,  and  but  for  his  lively  little  Sar- 
dinian sposa  would  have  been  quite  desperate.  Before 
these  establishments  were  made  there  was  nothing  here 
but  a  Turkish  post-house,  with  a  stable  and  two  mise- 
rable hovels  attached.  The  village  of  Herek-keui, 
which  lends  its  name  to  the  place,  is  up  in  the  hills  and 
quite  out  of  sight  It  is  one  of  the  successors  to  the 
innumerable  Heracleas  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  But  the 
ancient  Heraclea  at  this  place  Was  a  maritime  city  and 
had  a  port  on  the  gulf;  it  was  here  that  the  Goths  in 
the  third  century  had  left  their  fleet  of  boats,  and  it  was 
to  this  Heraclea  that  they  brought,  by  land,  the  great 
spoils  they  had  made  at  Nicomedia,  Nice,  Frusa,  and 

Ij  all   the  best  parts   of  Bithynia.     Thus  the   Turkish 

village  in  the  hills  must  first  have  borrowed  its  name 
from  the  city  on  the  coast,  a  part  of  the  site  of  which  is 
no  doubt  occupied  by  the  present  new  village.  The 
many  fragments  scattered  about  denote  that  the  ancient 
place  must  have  been  of  importance.  These  remains 
would  be  far  more  considerable  if  Heraclea  had  not 
been  on  the  edge  of  the  water  and  so  near  to  Con- 
stantinople. Near  the  lodging  houses  of  the  workmen 
there  was  an  ancient  sarcophagus,   large  and  massy. 


r 


Chap.  XXVU.    IMPERIAL  SILK  MANUFACTORY.  463 

which,  emptied  long  since  of  its  illustrious  bones  and 
ashes,  was  doing  duty  as  a  common  water-trough.  The 
Turkish  village  of  Herek-keui,  though  so  near,  was  so 
inaccessible  that  hardly  any  of  the  Europeans  had  gone 
up  to  it :  the  jovial  Lombard,  our  host,  had  made  the 
journey  once  and  had  promised  himself  never  to  attempt 
it  again ;  he  described  it  as  being  inhabited  solely  by 
Turks,  who  occupied  in  all  about  100  tumble-down 
houses  and  hovels,  and  who  were  not  unfriendly  or  bad 
people — ma  cT  una  poverta  I     Una  miseria ! 

Wherever  we  saw  a  plan  which  had  originated  wi& 
Riza  Pasha,  it  was  more  free  of  flaws  than  any  other  of 
the  numerous  new  projects,  and  had  more  common 
sense  about  it.  He  may  have  been  a  more  daring 
rogue  than  his  rival  Reschid,  but,  for  administrative  and 
business  talent  and  activity  and  energy,  Reschid  was  not 
to  be  compared  with  him.  The  merinos  sheep  project 
was  Riza's.  Biza  selected  this  healthy  spot  at 
Heraclea,  and  first  set  up  these  works.  Preferring  the 
useiul  to  the  ornamental,  he  intended  the  works  for  a 
cotton  factory,  and  nearly  all  the  machinery  originally 
set  up  was  for  spinning  and  weaving  cotton.  It  was  a 
private  matter,  a  secret,  a  "  little  go  "  of  his  own ;  but 
when  Riza  was  declining,  and  the  Sultan  came  to  learn 
about  these  great  buildings,  and  was  angry  thereat 
(wondering  how  he  could  have  come  by  the  money), 
Riza  made  a  present  of  the  whole  to  his  Highness  or 
Imperial  Majesty.  So  runs  the  story;  but  there  are 
various  editions  of  it.  The  English  cotton  machinery, 
bought,  fixed,  and  fitted  up  by  Englishmen,  at  an 
immense  expense,  was  then  all  pulled  down,  and  such 
portions  of  it  as  were  not  destroyed  were  sent  over  to 


464  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVH. 

Macri-keui.  I  have  said  before,  that  in  this  unhappy 
country  one  Minister  or  favourite  is  almost  sure  to  undo 
or  to  neglect  what  has  been  done  by  his  predecessor. 
If  the  work  is  not  undone  or  neglected,  then  it  is 
altered  from  its  original  intent  and  purpose.  Then, 
again,  the  men  who  divide  favour  and  authority  are 
almost  invariably  jealous  of  each  other,  and  ready  to 
mar  a  plan  in  which  they  ought  all  to  co-operate. 

**  Nulla  fides  regni  sociis,  omnisque  potestas 
Impatiens  consortia  erit."  * 

It  being  resolved  to  turn  the  cotton-mill  into  a  silk 
factory,  other  costly  machinery  was  bought  in  Europe. 
Hohannes  Dadian  purchased  at  Vienna  the  entire 
fabric  of  a  German — machinery,  materials,  designs, 
and  everything  as  it  stood — and  he  brought  out  the 
master  of  the  fabric,  his  family  and  workmen,  all  in  a 
lump,  in  order  that  they  might  make  at  an  immense 
price  at  Herek-keui  the  goods  which  they  had  made 
at  a  moderate  price  in  Vienna.  English,  French, 
German,  and  Italian  machinery  was  here  all  huddled 
together,  and  none  could  work  it  properly  except  tibe 
imported  Europeans.  Recently  some  improvements 
in  the  making  of  fancy  silks  had  been  announced  at 
Lyons,  and,  thereupon,  the  great  Hohannes  had  made 
a  new  purchase  and  had  brought  out,  at  a  very  great 
expense,  a  superior  French  mechanist  to  fit  up  this 
machinery.  M.  Riviere,  from  Lyons,  was  a  sensible, 
very  superior  man,  with  the  information  and  manners 
of  a  gentleman.  He  had  now  nearly  completed  his 
task,  and  was  looking  forward  with  much  pleasure  to 
his  return   home.     The  account  he  gave  me  of  the 

*  Lucan. 


Chap.  XXVII.    IMPERIAL  SILK  MANUFACTORY.  465 

Armenian  mismanagement  was  most  pitiable.  ''  It  is/' 
said  he,  ^^  a  mixtmre  of  folly  and  knavery  that  surpasses 
comprehension  I  Then,  imagine  the  folly  of  setting  up 
such  fancy  manufactures  as  these  in  a  country  where 
they  do  not  know  how  to  make  a  plough  !'* 

Here,  too,  there  was  water-power  enough  to  drive  fifty 
factories :  the  water  never  fails ;  it  was  never  known  not 
to  be  over-abundant ;  but,  to  throw  away  more  money, 
the  Dadians  must  have  a  steam-engine  in  case  of  its 
falling  short ;  and  here  stands  a  prime  English  engine, 
put  together  on  the  spot  by  excellent  workmen  im- 
ported ad  hoc  from  England.  It  had  never  been  used, 
and  it  never  will  be  used.  It  was  covered  with  dirt  and 
rust.  There  was  a  fine  English  hydraulic  wheel,  but 
it  was  very  far  fi'om  being  kept  in  such  beautifid  order 
as  the  Belgians  at  the  cloth  factory  kept  theirs ;  it  was 
dirty  and  neglected,  and  I  much  doubt  whether  it  was 
often  employed.  All  the  looms  we  saw  were  hand- 
looms:  of  these  not  more  than  ten  were  at  work. 
About  150  spinning-machines  and  looms  were  set  up, 
and  we  were  told  that  this  number  was  to  be  raised  to 
300.  The  Armenians  keep  adding  to  the  number, 
although,  for  want  of  proper  hands  and  for  want  of 
money  to  pay  the  working  people,  they  cannot  use 
such  as  are  already  set  up.  The  Armenians  jealously 
exclude  the  Greeks ;  the  rough  Armenian  peasants  are 
slow  in  learning,  and  do  not  willing  remain  here,  as 
they  are  miserably  and  irregularly  paid;  the  Turks 
cannot  and  will  not  learn,  they  always  want  to  knock 
off  and  smoke  pipe  I  Except  four  or  five  men  who 
remained  as  door-keepers  or  porters,  and  a  few  boys, 
all  the  Mussulmans  had  bolted  long  ago.     Of  course 

VOL.  11.  2  H 


466  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chaf.  XXVn. 

their  females  cannot  be  employed  in  a  factory  among 
men.  The  total  number  of  the  Armenians,  men,  women, 
and  children,  was  about  150 ;  but  we  could  scarcely 
see  any  of  them  at  work.  The  little  that  was  doing 
was  done  by  Europeans^  who  were  languidly  making 
narrow  ribbons  wherewith  to  hang  the  Sultan's  orders 
or  medals  to  uniform  coats,  and  some  broad,  stiff  ribbons 
for  the  Sultan's  women.  Of  Europeans  there  were  now 
on  the  spot  40  Germans  (15  of  them  being  females), 
II  Italians,  and  10  French.  Though  not  suffering  in 
health,  they  were  all  uneasy  or  depressed  in  spirits, 
complaining  of  the  solitude  and  barbarism  of  the  place, 
of  the  want  of  good  food,  of  the  total  want  of  amuse- 
ment, of  the  irregularity  of  their  pay,  and  of  the  tricks 
and  blunders  they  saw  daily  committed  without  being 
able  to  check  them. 

The  great  frame- work,  the  factory  buildings^  were, 
indeed,  of  very  superior  quality,  and  the  work-rooms 
were  for  the  most  part  vast,  airy,  and  well  lighted. 
They  showed  us  some  uncommonly  rich  fsmcy  and 
brocaded  silks  of  the  very  brightest  colours,  made  for 
shalvars  for  the  Sultan's  harem,  for  pantaloons  for  his 
chamberlains,  eunuchs,  and  secretaries,  and  some  other 
rich  figured  silks  for  curtains,  sofa-covers,  &c.  All  that 
is  produced  is  sent  to  the  Sultan's  palace,  where  every- 
body helps  himself  or  herself  according  to  &ncy  or 
amount  of  favour ;  and  then  the  very  little  that  remains 
— the  stuff  which  nobody  prizes — is  sent  to  the  bazaars 
of  Constantinople  to  be  sold  for  account  of  the  Sultan. 
The  regenerator  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  is  thus  made 
to  figure  as  a  retail  dealer  in  gauds  and  vanities,  in 
things  reprobated  by  the  Koran  and  prohibited  to  the 


6hap.  XXVn.    IMPERIAL  SlLK  MANUFACTORY.  467 

use  of  true  Mussulmans.  In  the  bazaars  there  is  h 
separate  shop  or  warehouse  for  the  sale  of  these  silks, 
with  a  r^ular  establishment  of  cashier,  clerks,  and 
shopmen,  every  man  so  employed  being  an  Armenian 
and  a  connexion  or  dependent  of  the  Dadians.  In 
wages  alone  this  establishment  costs  the  Sultan  about 
3000  piastres  per  month.  It  is  rare  that  anything  is 
sold,  or  that  anything  goes  there  but  refuse :  last  month 
they  sold  in  it  one  pike  of  figured  silk  stuff,  the  price 
of  which  might  possibly  be  from  20  to  30  piastres. 
This  fact  I  learned  from  an  indubitable  source,  not  at 
Heraclea,  but  at  Constantinople.  On  the  same  autho- 
rity I  can  state  that  hardly  anything  was  ever  sold  in 
the  Sultan's  cloth-shop  in  the  bazaars,  another  establish- 
ment costing  a  large  sum  monthly !  The  name  of  the 
Sultan's  women  is  Legion,  and  they  have  all  a  passion 
for  finery,  and — ^he  being  so  good-natured  and  so  very 
generous — they  must  all  be  indulged.  It  was,  how- 
ever, said  that  the  division  of  the  produce  of  Aese 
looms  led  to  frequent  and  fierce  contentions  among 
them— that  the  arrival  of  a  new  bale  of  silks  from 
Heraclea  invariably  caused  a  terrible  combustion  in  the 
imperial  harem. 

The  designs  of  some  of  the  pieces  we  saw  were  very 
pretty  and  tasteftil,  but  they  had  all  been  imported. 
They  had  now,  however,  three  designers,  one  being  a 
young  and  clever  Italian,  and  the  two  others  Germans ; 
and  we  saw  two  or  three  Armenian  boys  copying  orna- 
ments and  fancy  drawings  under  their  tuition.  The 
Brusa  silks,  and  still  less  the  other  silks  produced  and 
prepared  in  the  country,  were  scarcely  considered  fit  for 
the  fine  work.     A  good  deal  of  silk  had  been  imported 

2  H  2 


Imm^fSr^mm' 


468  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVII. 

from  France  and  Italy,  and  the  best,  if  not  the  only 
good  piece-goods  that  were  showed  to  us  were  made 
entirely  of  European  materials  and  by  European  hands 
— the  machinery  being  of  course  all  European.  And 
these  were  shown  to  the  poor  innocent  Sultan  as  proof 
that  his  own  subjects  in  his  own  dominions  could  rival 
the  productions  of  Europe !  "  It  will  be  some  time," 
said  M.  Riviere,  '^  before  Heraclea  shall  be  able  to 
make  Lyons  tremble  or  cause  uneasiness  in  Spitalfields. 
They  are  throwing  away  their  millions  of  piastres! 
This  machinery  I  am  fitting  up  is  complicated  and 
delicate.  I  know  it  will  be  broken  and  spoiled  before 
I  am  gone  a  month,  and  then  who  is  to  repair  it  ?" 

The  unhappy  politics  of  Europe  pursued  us  even  to 
this  nook.  Disorganizing  French  principles  stared  us 
in  the  face  even  at  Heraclea;  for  here  we  found  a 
prSds  of  the  doctrines  of  Fourrier,  a  copy  of  Louis 
Blanc's  Socialist  Manual,  and  two  or  three  other  Com- 
munist books  and  pamphlets. 

Our  kind-hearted  Comasco,  whose  name  was  Angelo 
Camani,  played  the  part  of  host  quite  admirably,  con- 
sidering the  limited  resources  at  his  command  and  the 
baraque  of  a  house  he  had  to  live  in. 

Here  were  intelligent,  unprejudiced  men,  firom 
various  countries,  and  our  friend  and  companion 
M.  R ,  who  had  seen  the  greater  part  of  the  em- 
pire. French,  German,  Italian,  or  Levantine  Frank, 
there  was  but  one  opinion  among  them — the  empire 
was  going  to  ruin  at  an  accelerated  pace  ;  the  substance 
was  gone  already ^  and  the  Armenians  were  finishing  the 
dish  hy  picking  the  hones.  One  man,  who  had  been  in 
every  part  of  European  Turkey  and  in  nearly  every 


mmmicmssmmmammmmmmmB 


Chap.  XXVH.  KARA  MUSAL.  469 

comer  of  Asia  from  Syria  to  the  Persian  border, 
from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  most 
solemnly  declared  that,  as  far  as  the  Turks  were  con- 
cerned, he  had  nowhere  seen  anything  but  a  decreasing 
population,  and  towns  and  villages  in  decay.  He 
would  not  admit  of  an  exception.  Some  places  were 
mentioned  as  having  of  late  years  shown  symptoms  of 
reviving  prosperity  and  increasing  population.  "Go 
to  them,"  said  he,  "  and  you  wfll  find  that  the  increase 
is  only  among  the  Christian  and  Jewish  Rayahs." 

In  the  morning  we  walked  with  our  good-natured 
host  up  the  steep-ascending  valley  to  the  head  of  the 
waters,  a  short  walk  of  scarcely  more  than  ten  minutes. 
The  water  came  out  from  the  side  of  a  rock  (something 
like  the  fountain  of  Yaucluse)  in  a  grand  volume,  and 
was  received  in  a  square  artificial  basin,  the  solid 
masonry  of  which  appeared  to  be  ancient,  as  did  also  a 
part  of  the  conduit  which  conveyed  the  stream  down  to 
the  works.  It  was  a  power  to  delight  the  heart  of 
Sam  Slick;  but  the  greater  part  of  the  water  was 
allowed  to  run  to  waste  down  the  valley  into  the  gulf 

We  left  this  Imperial  Silk  Factory  at  10.30  A.M., 
on  Wednesday  the  19th  of  April.  Landing  on  the 
opposite  shore  at  Kara  Musal,  we  examined  that  town, 
aud  waited  for  the  steamer  from  Constantinople  which 
would  carry  us  up  to  Nicomedia.  It  took  us  nearly 
two  hours  to  cross  the  gulf,  but  the  boat  was  a  tub,  and 
our  fellows  about  the  worst  oarsmen  in  the  world.  In 
l^e  town  it  was  the  old  story ;  this  place,  so  pleasant 
and  picturesque  without,  was  filthy  in  the  extreme 
within ;  there  was  a  cloaca  in  every  narrow  street,  and 
nearly  every  wooden  house  was  falling  asunder. 


470  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVU, 

At  1.20  P.M.  the  steamboat  arrived^  and  we  yery 
gladly  embarked  in  her.  We  found  on  board  anoth^ 
party  of  men-^catchersi  as  rough  and  ragged  a«  die 
former  ones.  There  were  two  dischai^ed  soldiers  from 
the  Imperial  guard  at  Stamboul,  both  young  men, 
both  wofiilly  sick,  and  in  tatters.  They  were  suffering 
under  pulmonary  consumption*  They  were  going 
home :  one  to  Iconium,  the  other  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Bagdad.  Of  a  certainty  the  poor  fellows  would  die 
on  the  road;  their  cough  was  hollow  and  most  dis^ 
tressing.  Among  the  passengers  was  another  Italian 
hekim,  a  clever,  enterprising,  honest-looking  Nea- 
politan, who  hailed  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Bari,  on 
the  Adriatic,  He  had  been  thirteen  or  fourteen  years 
in  this  country ;  his  head-quarters  were  at  Nieomedia, 
but  he  frequently  travelled,  and  his  range  extended 
well  nigh  all  over  Bithynia.  He  spoke  of  the  Tanzi-i 
maut  as  a  farce,  and  said  that  every  year  the  country 
was  getting  poorer  and  poorer.  Having  some  knowledge 
of  classical  literature  and  geography,  this  Signer  Carelli 
had  paid  some  attention  to  the  comparative  geography 
of  Bithynia.  He  had  followed  the  course  of  the  San- 
garius  (by  its  right  bank)  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kiva  to  its  mouth  on  the  Black  Sea ;  and  he  said  that 
river  was  or  might  easily  be  made  navigable  for  many 
miles.  According  to  his  account,  another  river,  called 
the  Kara  Sou  (as  one  half  of  the  rivers  are  called  by 
the  Turks),  issues  from  the  E.  end  of  the  Sabanjah 
lake,*  runs  a  long  way  parallel  with  and  very  near  to 
the  Sangarius,  and   falls  into  that  river   some  miles 

*  Mr.  William  J.  Hamilton's  map  is  the  only  one  I  have  seen  where 
this  river,  flowing  ftom  the  east  end  of  the  Sabanjah  or  Sophon  Lake,  is 


-«**     — '      t  ^m  I  «t^.^».. -      --^^^— ^.^^-^-^^  — w,^—     —  ■-      I  ,a.^^.-_- 


Chap.  XXVH.  THE  SABANJAH  LAKE.  471 

above  its  mouth.  He  laughed — as  we  had  so  often 
done  before— at  our  maps  of  Asia  Minor.  Some  of 
the  American  missionaries,  who  had  travelled  this  way, 
had  also  told  us  of  a  river  issuing  from  the  E.  end  of 
the  Sabanjah  and  descending  towards  the  Black  Sea. 
This  is  curious,  for  there  certainly  was  a  stream 
issuing  from  the  W.  end  of  the  lake  and  descending  to 
the  gulf  of  Nicomedia,  joining  on  its  way  the  waters 
from  tiie  Ghieuk  Dagh.  This  stream  was  also  caUed 
Kara  Sou,  but  Turkish  names  signify  nothing,  and 
serve  no  purpose  except  to  produce  confrision  by  their 
very  sameness.  Has  the  Sabanjah  the  anomaly  of  a 
double  outlet?  or  are  the  best  means  of  keeping  its 
waters  to  a  proper  level  and  draining  the  country  to  be 
looked  for  at  its  E.  end  ? 

Another  amusing  character  on  board  the  steamer 
was  a  Bokhara  trader,  who  was  going  through  Asia 
Minor  for  traffic,  and  then  to  the  holy  city  of  Mecca 
for  devotion.  We  observed  that  he  had  with  him  a 
good  stock  of  tea«  This  must  have  been  for  the  use  of 
the  pilgrims  from  the  tea-drinking  part  of  Asia.  He 
wore  an  enormous  white  turban,  baggy  Oriental  silk 
trowsers.  Eastern  papoushes,  and  a  shawl  girdle ;  but 
over  his  thoroughly  Eastern  attire  he  had  put  a  smart 
black  Taglioni  coat,  which  he  had  purchased  at  Fera, 
and  of  which  he  was  very  proud.  He  was  the  strangest- 
looking  daw  I  We  had  seen  all  manner  of  transitions 
and  minglings  of  Turkish  and  Christian,  Asiatic  and 


indicated.    Mr.  H.  sayi  it  joins  tlie  SftngarinB,  and  tibat  it  is  called  the 
KiUis. 

Commonly  the  Greeks  and  Turks  use  different  names :  KUUs  may  here 
be  the  Greek  name  of  the  river. 


472  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVn. 

European,  but  we  had  not  yet  fancied  the  apparition  of 
a  Taglioni  coat  at  Mecca  I  This  Bokhara  trader  was 
a  very  swarthy,  dark-visaged,  disdainful  Mussulman. 
He  had  a  pipe-bearer,  and  another  servant  besides. 
We  reached  Nicomedia  at  3.15  p.m.  The  Neapolitan 
hekim  kindly  offered  us  the  hospitality  of  his  house, 
but  we  were  very  well  at  the  Greek's. 

This  town  was  now  said  to  contain  1500  Turkish, 
and  more  than  400  Armenian  houses.  To  us  the  Ar- 
menians seemed  to  be  quite  as  numerous  as  the  Turks. 
There  were  only  30  Jewish  families,  and  not  above  80 
Greek  houses.  The  Greeks  have  a  large  village,  all 
their,  own,  at  an  hour's  distance  to  the  E. ;  it  is  called 
Michalitch,  is  situated  high  up  the  hills,  is  screened 
from  the  lake  and  the  plain  by  a  long  rocky  ridge 
which  conceals  it  from  sight,  and  it  is  considered 
healthy,  while  the  whole  of  the  city  is  subject  to  the 
worst  fevers.  Protected  by  the  great  Dadians,  the 
Eutychean  Armenians  were  holding  up  their  heads,  and 
looking  rather  insolent.  Of  the  Protestant  converts 
here  I  could  see  or  learn  nothing.  Both  Armenians 
and  Greeks  were  making  grand  preparations  for  the 
Easter  festivities.  Their  priests  were  bustling  about, 
popping  into  all  the  houses,  dressing  out  their  churches 
and  looking  for  good  crops  of  grushes.  Each  morning 
that  we  were  at  Nicomedia  they  woke  us  long  before 
daylight  with  their  clubs  and  clappers. 

On  Thursday  the  20th  of  April,  at  7.15  p.m.,  we 
left  Ismitt  or  Nicomedia.  The  steamer  was  crowded, 
as  great  numbers  were  going  to  keep  their  Easter  in 
the  capital.  The  dirt  and  the  confusion  were  alike  in- 
describable.    As  most  of  the  living  cargo  were  Arme- 


"iCli.»»».~M.-'."  —  "^      3MC3BBBBMKMkSKlSMV>«MMi«MiiM*««iiaiaw*«««4Mkp«p^HM«ai^^ 


Chap.  XXVn.  ARMENIAN  INSOLENCE.  473 

nians — as  the  deck  fore  and  aft  was  littered  by  tibem, 
there  was  a  stench  of  garlic  wherever  we  moved.  There 
was  a  strong  muster  of  the  Dadian  blood — Barons 
Artine  and  Stepano,  distinguished  ofihoots  of  the 
dynasty,  and  the  local  managers  and  paymasters  of  l^e 
works,  were  there,  with  their  secretaries,  pipe  bearers, 
and  servants,  like  a  couple  of  Pashas.  No  doubt  they 
got  glorious  pickings  I  They  were  unshaved,  uncombed, 
unwashed,  unmannerly  barbarians,  rude  and  overbear- 
ing, and  quite  as  foul  in  speech  as  in  person.  They 
and  their  retainers  took  possession  of  the  cabin  to  the 
exclusion  of  every  one  else;  they  domineered  over 
everybody,  and  the  captain  of  the  boat  (our  old  acquaint- 
ance in  the  Ghemlik  steamer),  Mussulman  and  Osman- 
lee  as  he  was,  was  as  obsequious  and  as  fawning  as  a 
spaniel  before  their  high  mightinesses.  Only  some 
Turks  from  the  interior  Mashallahed  a  little  in  asto- 
nishment at  the  presumption  and  insolency  of  these 
Rayah  ghiaours,  and  at  the  terrible  noise  they  made. 
They  spread  out  a  grand  breakfast  below,  and  ate  it 
like  hogs ;  then  they  piped,  turned  into  the  berths,  and 
slept  and  snored  as  though  they  would  snore  off  the 
deck ;  then  they  woke,  piped  again,  swilled  raki,  and 
slept  again.  When  awake  they  were  constantly  drink- 
ing raki,  or  bawling  ^^  Ghel  I  ghel  I"  for  their  servants. 
There  was  a  secretary  fellow  on  deck,  with  a  bit  of 
gold  embroidery  on  his  coat,  and  a  large  thick  patent- 
leather  French  portfolio  strapped  to  his  waist.  When 
out  of  sight  of  the  two  Barons  he  gave  himself  great 
airs ;  but  at  their  frequent  calls  he  had  to  run  up  and 
down  the  companion-ladder  like  a  lamplighter.  What 
he  carried  in  his  big  portfolio  I  know  not ;  I  only  know 


474  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXVII. 

« 

that  it  was  neyer  unstrapped  or  opened ;  he  wore  it  as 
insignia  of  office. 

To  watch  tihe  fellows  below  tibroagfa  the  skylight,  was 
a  good  deal  like  looking  into  a  den  of  wild  show-beasts. 
The  quantity  of  raki  they  were  drinking  was  astound- 
ing ;  but  I  think  that  in  the  end  they  were  all  intoxi* 
cated.  Much  of  their  Turkish  was  altogether  unintel- 
ligible to  us ;  but  there  was  scarcely  an  oaili  or  an 
obscene  term  in  the  language  but  we  heard  coming  fre- 
quently out  of  their  mouths.  I  could  perfectly  well 
understand  how  well-founded  were  the  complaints  of 
the  poor  Belgians  up  at  the  cloth-fectory,  who  had  told 
us  that  the  grossness  and  arrogance  of  these  men  were 
unbearable.     No  t3rrant  like  an  emancipated  slave ! 

We  reached  the  Golden  Horn  at  3.30  p.m.  At 
Fera  the  weather  was  quite  cold  in  the  evening,  and  in 
four  days  we  had  a  return  of  sleet  and  rain. 


-    *»    :^9^mimtt 


C«AP.  XXVm.      JOURNBT  TO  ADMANOPLB.  475 


CHAPTER  XXVm, 

Journey  to  Adrianople  —  No  Boads  —  A  Speculation  in  Diligences  — 
The  Cholera  —  A  Voyage  on  the  Propontis  —  Fire  at  Stamboul  — 
Town  of  Selyvria  —  Comfortable  QuarterB  —  Population  —  Decline  of 
the  Turks  — ^  Forced  Abcrti<Hi8  --  Prosperity  of  Gephaloniote  Greeks  -— 
Their  Factions  —  The  Greek  Bishop  and  Cleigy  of  Selyvria  —  Growing 
Disregard  of  Reli^on  —  Tax-Gatherers  —  Mosques  and  Old  Churches 
—  Turkish  Destructiveness  —  Holy  Fountains  —  Murders  and  Rob- 
beries — « Turkiidi  Justice  -*  Eirk-Elissia  •^  A  PflgrimHship — Travelling 
German  Tailors  —  A  desolate  Coast  —  Town  of  Heradea  —  Marshes 
and  stagnant  Waters  —  Intense  heat,  succeeded  by  chilling  Weather  — 
Lonely  Coast  —  Town  of  Rodostb  —  Another  English  Fann  1  —  Price 
of  Land  — *  Annenian  Jealousy  — *  Inland  Journey  —  Bulgarian  Thieves 
— ^  Mussulmanized  Gipsies  —  Desolate  Qountry  —  Baba-Eskissi  — « 
Beautiful  Bridge  —  More  Bobberies  and  Murders  ^^  Great  Plain  of 
Thrace  —  Dreadful  Boads  —  Town  of  Khavsk  and  its  Buins  —  Magni- 
ficent Khan  dismantled  —  First  View  of  Adrianople  —  The  Hebms  -— 
Bulgarian  Labourers  —  Adrianople  and  its  Filtb  -^^  A  Great  Mollah  — ' 
Pasha  of  Adrianople  and  his  Drinking  Party  —  Mr.  Edward  Schnell 
and  the  Village  of  Kara  Atch. 

Having  surveyed  Brusa,  the  best  Fashalik  in  Asia 
Minor,  I  now  resolved  to  examine  Adrianople^  the 
best  Fashalik  of  Europe.  I  was  told  that  the  active 
trade  in  com  and  other  agricultural  produce  in  the 
years  1846-7  had  done  great  thbgs  as  well  for  this 
part  of  European  Turkey  as  ibr  the  Danubian  Prin- 
cipalities, and  I  was  very  positively  assured  by  many, 
that  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Hebrus,  or  Maritsa, 
I  should  see  a  grand  developement  and  a  wonderful 
improvem^it  bpth  in  agriculture  and  in  the  condition 
of  the  people.     ^^  Go  and  see  the  Maritsa  and  the 


476  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.      Chap.  XXVUI. 

country  about  Adrianople  and  Demotica,"  was  repeated 
by  several  Turks  in  office,  to  whom  I  had  lamented  that 
I  could  discover  no  progress  in  farming. 

How  were  we  to  go?  In  the  preceding  autunm, 
while  staying  at  Brusa,  we  had  seen  several  announce- 
ments in  the  ^  Journal  de  Constantinople,'  that  an 
enlightened  and  enterprising  Armenian  Company, 
greatly  to  their  own  honour,  and  to  the  inestimable 
benefit  of  commerce,  civilization,  &c.,  had  established 
a  number  of  commodious  diligences  which  ran  from  the 
capital  to  Adrianople  three  times  a  week,  making 
the  journey  in  forty  hours.  On  our  return  from  Asia 
Minor  to  Constantinople  at  Christmas,  we  found  large 
printed  placards  in  the  streets  of  Galata  and  Fera, 
which  stated,  in  various  languages,  that  these  diligences 
were  running,  and  which  gave  the  fares,  the  number 
of  hours,  and  other  information.  They  had  called 
in  the  arts  of  designing  and  engraving  to  give  greater 
eclat  to  this  wonderful  novelty:  at  the  head  of  the 
placard  you  saw  a  very  cozy  and  comfortable  carriage 
rolling  along  a  smooth  road»  drawn  by  four  horses  at 
the  gallop.  I  asked  several  persons  about  these  con- 
veyances, and  while  some  said  they  knew  nothing 
about  them,  others  assured  us  that  they  were  going 
and  returning  regularly.  In  no  one  thing  could  the 
truth  be  ascertained  in  this  country  without  great 
trouble  and  long  delays.  It  was  not  until  several 
weeks  had  passed  that  we  learned  to  a  certainty  that 
absolutely  nothing  had  been  done  to  mend  that  road, 
or  rather  to  make  a  road  (for  road  there  was  none)  ; 
that  the  whole  afiair  had  been  the  wildest  speculation 
and  the  most  complete   failure;  that  before   the  wet 


Chap.  XXVIIL      JOURNEY  TO  ADRIANOPLE.  477 

weather  set  in  a  diligence  had  once  or  twice  performed 
the  journey  in  four  days ;  that  after  the  first  heavy 
rainsy  the  waters  were  all  out^  and  some  of  the  bogs 
so  terrible,  that  it  required  twenty  horses  to  drag  the 
Tehicle  out  of  them ;  that  the  last  journey  had  been 
made,  with  many  accidents  and  circumstances  of  diffi- 
culty and  great  distress,  in  dghi  days ;  and  that  this 
would  certainly  be  the  very  last  journey  the  diligence 
company  would  undertake.  A  few  days  after  getting 
this  information,  I  saw  the  Hellenic  Vice-Consul  of 
Adrianople,  who  had  made  that  dismal  journey  with 
his  wife  in  that  most  inclement  winter  weather ;  his 
description  of  the  trip  was  quite  appalling :  they  had 
stuck  fast  in  the  mud ;  they  had  passed  from  one  slough 
of  despond  into  another ;  they  had  been  dragged  throu^ 
torrents,  at  the  imminent  risk  of  being  drowned ;  they 
had  passed  two  nights  on  a  desolate  heath,  without  any 
shelter,  exposed  to  snow-storms,  and  the  cutting,  rat- 
tling winds  from  the  steppes  of  Tartary ;  they  had  been 
starved  by  hunger  as  well  as  by  cold ;  the  vice-consular 
bones  were  nearly  all  dislocated,  the  vice-consuless 
arrived  at  Constantinople  dangerously  ill  I 

There  was  no  way  of  travelling  by  land  except  on 
the  wretched  post-horses.  We  preferred  going  as  far 
as  Rodostd  by  sea.  Yorghi,  an  honest  young  fellow 
of  Selyvria,  who  had  engaged  to  accompany  us  as 
drogoman  and  factotum,  secured  us  a  passage  on 
board  a  small  Greek  sailing  vessel  as  far  as  Selyvria« 
She  was  to  start  at  noonday,  and,  true  to  time,  we 
were  on  board  with  our  light  baggage  and  saddles. 
She  did  not  move  until  4*30  p.m.  We  were  told 
that  we  were  mad  to  think  of  going  to  Selyvria,  as 


478  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTOTY.     Chap.  XXVni. 

the  cholera  was  raging  there  worse  than  ever  plague 
had  done.  We  had  been  told  as  much  or  more  up 
at  Fera :  a  Frank  had  ridden  through  Sely vria  a  few 
days  agOy  and  had  counted  fifty  funerals  going  on  at 
once  ;  all  that  were  not  dying  were  then  running 
away ;  Selyvria  would  be  deserted  by  this  time ;  he 
was  quite  sure  of  that  I  As  usual,  we  suspected  some 
exaggeration;  and  as  the  cholera  was  visibly  and 
alarmingly  on  the  increase  in  Constantinople  and  all 
this  neighbourhood  (four  poor  Englishmen  had  died 
of  it  within  a  week),  I  thought  we  might  be  quite 
as  safe  at  Selyvria  as  here.  We  had  just  had  four 
days  of  cold,  cloudy  weather,  with  frequent  raind; 
but  to^ay- — Saturday,  the  29th  of  April — the  sky 
was  cloudless,  the  sun  warm;  and  this  cheered  our 
spirits* 

At  last  our  Greek  mariners  summoned  us  on  board, 
and  slipping  from  her  moorings  at  a  rotten  old  wooden 
jetty,  our  trim  bark  presently  got  out  into  the  current 
of  the  Bosphorus,  and  then  into  the  broad  Fropontis. 
The  bark  was  such  as  St  Paul  had  sailed  in,  or  quite 
as  primitive ;  but  its  picturesquely  shaped  sails  caught 
the  wind  well,  and,  favoured  by  the  current,  and  a 
very  gentle  breeze  which  scarcely  ruffled  the  water,  we 
glided  pleasantly  along  the  lonely  shores  of  Thrace 
at  about  the  rate  of  five  knots  an  hour.  Our  fellow- 
passengers  were  two  quiet,  respectable  Turks  wearing 
the  picturesque  old  costume,  one  thriving  Greek  from 
Gephalonia,  who  told  us  that  he  was  an  EngUshmar^ 
and  half  a  dozen  decent  Bayah  Greeks  of  Selyvria. 
One  of  the  Turks  performed  his  evening  devotions^ 
and  appeared  to  be  wholly  abswbed  by  his  prayers ; 


•^■■^^iW-W" 


CHAP.XXVin.    THE  PB0P0OT18— SBLYVBIA.  479 

the  other  remained  sitting  cros&*l^ged  on  the  deck, 
smoking  his  tchibouque.  The  Greek  sailorsi  sitting 
under  the  tall  enarehing  bow,  sang  a  hymn  to  th^ 
Panagia,  and  then  one  or  two  love-songs»  I  smoked 
my  pipe  in  peace  and  pleasantness;  and  all  things 
were  pleasant  enough^  except  a  sour,  pungent  odour 
of  the  white  cheese  of  the  country.  This  cheese 
(made  of  ewes'  milk)  formed  the  bulk  of  the  little 
cargoes  which  the  vessel,  once  or  twice  each  week, 
carried  from  Selyvria  to  the  capital.  When  we  were 
off  Ponte  Grande,  where  the  coast  becomes  rather  bold, 
the  sky  behind  us  was  suddenly  reddened,  and  broad, 
towering  flames  were  reflected  across  the  smooth  Sea 
of  Marmora.  It  was  only  another  great  fire  at 
Stamboul,  somewhere  near  the  Seven  Towers.  We 
hcfped  our  kind  Scotch  friends  would  not  be  burned 
out 

At  9*30  TM.  we  stopped  at  the  village  of  Pivades 
%  to  land  some  sugar  and  coffee.  It  was  ticklish  work 
getting  on  shore  in  the  dark,  over  a  rotten  old  wooden 
pier,  broken  and  abounding  in  holes ;  but  we  reached  a 
coffee-house  on  the  beach,  and  inquired  for  news  ?  The 
cholera  was  most  fierce  yesterday  at  Selyvria,  but  there 
was  no  cholera  at  Pivades^  and  a  great  many  of  the 
Sely vriotes  had  run  hither ;  the  cafe  was  fiill  of  them, 
and  so  was  nearly  every  house  in  the  village. 

We  took  coffee  and  re^mbarked  at  10*30  p.m«  The 
wind  now  freshened,  and  we  ran  down  to  Selyvria  in  less 
than  an  hour.  Scrupling  to  disturb  a  decent  fanuly 
at  this  time  of  the  night,  we  took  up  our  quarters  in  an 
Armenian  coffee-house  near  the  beach,  and  turning  our 
saddles  into  pillows,  we  slept  as  usual  on  the  floor. 


? 


i^ 


480  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIH. 


At  an  early  hour  of  the  following  morning  we  went 
up  the  hill  to  the  house  of  Yorghi's  father,  who  was 
hekim-bashi  of  Sely  vria,  and  one  of  the  most  respectable 
and  agreeable  men  we  met  with  in  this  country.  We 
had  known  the  son  ever  since  our  first  arrival  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  had  had  repeated  proofs  of  his  honesty, 
sincerity,  truthfulness,  high  spirit,  and  affectionate  dis- 
^^  position ;  until  I  knew  his  father  I  could  not  make  out 

^  how,  in  such  regions,  and  with  such  examples  before 

his  eyes,  the  lad  had  come  by  so  many  good  qualities, 
and  had  retained  such  good  principles.  The  doctor's 
house  was  most  clean  and  comfortable.  He  was  angry 
at  his  son  for  not  having  brought  us  straight  to  it  last 
night  instead  of  leaving  us  in  the  dirty  cafe ;  but  that 
was  no  fault  of  Yorghi. 

Cholera  had  been  rather  fierce,  but  was  now  calm ; 
there  had  been  only  one  attack  yesterday,  and  the 
woman  was  doing  well  this  morning.  It  broke  out  on 
Palm  Sunday — the  day  on  which  we  were  at  the  Sa-  ^ 
banjah  Lake.  Half  of  the  people  had  really  run  away 
to  Fivades ;  but  the  total  number  of  deaths  had  been 
only  25 1  The  doctor  had  attended  every  case.  The 
mortality  was  very  small  compared  with  the  number  of 
the  seizures.  The  Jews,  though  the  least  numerous  part 
of  the  population,  had  suffered  by  far  the  most  attacks,  yet 
only  2  of  them  had  died :  there  had  been  more  than 
an  average  of  two  cases  in  every  Jewish  house,  for  1 70 
men,  women,  and  children  had  been  very  ill:  of  70 
Turks  affected  only  1  died,'  and  of  40  Armenians  only 
2  ;  the  disease  had  been  disproportionately  fatal  to  the 
Greeks,  for  out  of  4 1  sick  they  lost  by  death  no  fewer 
than  20.     This  curious  variety  in  mortality  was  not  to 


Chap.  XXVm.     SELYVRrA  — FORCED  ABORTION.  461 

be  accounted  for  by  situation  or  topical  circumstances ; 
the  Greeks^  as  well  as  the  Armenians  and  the  Jews, 
lived  on  the  hill,  which  was  well  ventilated,  and  by  far 
the  best  drained  part  of  the  town ;  the  Turks  dwelt  at 
the  foot  of  the  hill,  in  an  unhealthy  hollow  between  the 
sea-shore  and  a  choked  up  stream,  with  marshes  be- 
yond it. 

In  all  there  were  about  800  houses  in  Selyvria,  of 
which  180  were  Greek,  72  Jewish,  about  70  Armenian, 
1 7  Septinsular  Greek,  and  nearly  all  the  rest  Turkish. 
There  was  not  a  Bulgarian  housekeeper  in  the  place, 
although  a  recent  French  traveller  (one  of  those  who 
have  taken  up  the  dieory  that  this  branch  of  the  great 
Slave  Family  is  rising  in  importance,  and  ought  to  be 
masters  of  European  Turkey)  affirms  that  the  Bul- 
garians are  becoming  numerous  at  Selyvria.*  In  the 
country  there  were  a  few  Bulgarian  shepherds,  and  some 
Bulgarian  labourers,  who  generally  came  down  in  tibe 
spring  and  returned  to  tlieir  own  country  above  Fhili- 
popoli  in  the  autumn :  they  were  the  rudest  and  most  bar- 
barous of  all  the  people,  and  the  most  addicted  to  robbery. 
The  population  of  Selyvria  had  been  considerably  in- 
creased of  late  years,  but  not  by  Turks.  They  were 
decreasing.  Our  host,  who  had  lived  here  some  eighteen 
years,  and  who  visited,  professionally,  all  the  neigh- 
bouring regions  for  many  miles,  described  the  Mussul- 
mans as  dying  out.  No  man  better  knew  the  horrible 
practices  to  which  I  have  so  often  alluded.  While  the 
Greek,  the  Armenian,  and  the  Jewish  quarters  were 
swarming  with  children,  we  saw  very  few  in  the  Turkish 
quarter.     "  Ilfatto  ^,  i  Turchi  sonpersi  nella  miseria^ 

*  *  Lea  Slaves  de  Turquie,  <frc.'    Par  M.  Cyprien  Robert.    Paris,  1844. 
VOL.  U.  2  I 


mmmm0 


482  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTimr.      Chap.  XXVIQ. 

e  non  vogliono  averfigli  I "  So  said  the  hekim.  Agri- 
cultural produce  for  exportation  had  been  nearly  doubled 
within  the  last  few  years^  and  would  soon  be  more  than 
doubled  again,  but  for  the  want  of  hands  to  till  the  soil, 
the  enormous  interest  on  money,  and  the  want  of  proper 
protection  for  the  landed  property  of  Bayahs  and 
English  protected  Greeks.  The  rate  of  interest  in 
these  parts,  with  the  best  landed  security,  was  2  per 
cent  a  month,  and  20  per  cent,  a  year.  There  were 
17  Cephaloniotes  or  Anglo-Greeks  settled  in  the  town, 
some  of  them  having  wives  and  families.  They  were 
active,  intelligent,  enterprising,  thriving  men,  but  muoh 
given  to  cabal  and  intrigue,  and  altogether  inclining  in 
character  to  the  Greeks  of  the  Lower  Empire.  Few 
as  they  were,  they  were  split  into  two  fierce  factions,  and 
as  now,  and  al^o  on  my  return  from  Adrianople,  I  had 
some  intercourse  with  both,  I  found  it  difficult'  to  pre- 
serve my  neutrality  and  avoid  being  involved  in  their 
quarrels.  They  had  all  come  very  poor  into  the 
country,  and  most  of  them  not  long  ago.  At  first  they 
acted  as  brokers  or  collectors  of  corn,  maize,  &c^  up 
the  country.  Then  they  began  to  lend  money  at 
interest  to  the  beggared  farmers,  and  to  buy  up  produce 
in  detail,  on  their  own  accounts.  There  was  now  not  a 
place  between  Selyvria  and  Baba-Eskissi,  or  between 
Selyvria  and  Kirk-Klissia,  which  they  did  not  occa-- 
sionally  visit,  and  in  which  they  had  not  more  or  less 
business.  Boldly  relying  on  our  last  commercial  treaty 
with  the  Forte,  which  stipulates  that  all  trade  and  in- 
dustry shall  be  as  open  to  British  subjects  as  to  the 
subjects  of  the  Sultan,  and  bullying  the  Turks  with  the 
greatness  and  might  of  the  British  embassy,  they  had 


Chap.  XXVin.    SELYVRIA  —  CEPHALONIOTE  COLONY.       483 

opened  ovens,  and  were  baking  and  selling  good  bread 
in  spite  of  the  esnaff  or  corporation  of  bakers.  Nearly 
every  visible  improvement  in  the  town  was  to  be  traced 
directly  to  this  small  colony  of  British  protected  Greeks 
of  the  Ionian  Islands.  They  had  set  in  motion  the 
Bayah  farmers  who  had  increased  the  agricultural  pro- 
duce. They  had  built  near  the  water's  edge  some  good 
stone  magazines  for  holding  their  corn,  maize,  linseed, 
etc,  and  they  were  now  building  others.  They  occupied 
the  best  houses  in  the  town,  and  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren were  neatly,  and — on  Sundays  and  holidays — 
elegantly  dressed.  ^^  If  we  had  English  law  here,''  said 
one  of  them  ;  "  if  the  country  were  in  possession  of  an 
English  army,  we  would  all  grow  very  wealthy  in  no 
time ;  we  would  bring  good  labourers  from  the  Ionian 
Islands;  we  would  farm  these  waste  lands,  we  would 
change  tibe  whole  appearance  of  the  country,  which  is 
now  little  better  than  a  desert ;  but  we  can  do  nothing, 
of  this  sort  with  the  Turks.  They  will  not  let  us  hold 
land  in  our  own  name."  One  of  them,  however,  had 
bought,  in  the  name  of  his  wife,  a  Greek  of  Selyvria  and 
a  Rayah  subject,  a  very  extensive  chifllik  near  Heraclea, 
and  last  year  he  had  got  some  good  crops  off  it,  and  had 
sold  the  produce  at  a  good  price.  This  was  old  Sotiri 
Macri,  who  passed  for  a  very  rich  man,  and  was  the 
head  of  one  of  the  factions.  The  head  of  the  other 
faction  had  built  himself  a  very  comfortable  and  really 
pretty  house,  and  had  iurnished  it  almost  luxuriously, 
with  rich  Turkish  carpets,  French  chairs  and  tables, 
sofas,  sideboards,  and  chiffoniers.  Nay,  this  aspiring 
Cephaloniote  had  even  bedsteads  in  his  best  bedrooms — 
real,  substantial,  nicely  varnished,  French  iron-bedsteads. 

2i2 


— U^-^—  ■     I  ^^g^i^M>--w  I  ■■■■■■■  ^^^tm^ttm^mmm     .  j  m 


484  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIH. 

We  gazed  with  astonishment  at  these  rarities,  of  which 
he  was  very  proud,  as  he  well  might  be. 

They  all  spoke  with  contempt  or  anger  of  the  low, 
ignorant,  rapacious  Greek  clergy  of  the  town,  who  did 
nothing  but  make  broils  and  plunder  the  people. 

We  had  many  amusing  stories  about  this  loose, 
degraded  priesthood.  When  the  cholera  broke  out, 
instead  of  staying  to  comfort  the  sick  and  inter  the 
dead,  they  were  the  very  first  to  run  away  to  Pivades. 
Before  taking  his  departure,  the  despotos  or  bishop, 
with  his  pastoral  staff,  thrashed  some  women  of  ill  fame 
in  the  public  streets  of  Selyvria,  saying  that  it  was  their 
wickedness  that  had  brought  the  awful  visitation  upon 
the  town.  The  women  said  that  he  beat  them  because 
they  had  refused  to  give  him  money.  He  was  a  ter- 
rible man,  this  burly  Greek  bishop  of  Selyvria ;  tall,  big, 
and  with  a  very  big  voice  and  a  most  passionate  temper, 
he  was  quite  an  Abbfe  Watteville.  He  was  always 
using  his  crozier,  like  a  quarter-staff,  on  people's  heads 
or  shoulders.  Whenever  his  flock  was  backward  in 
payments,  he  thrashed  them  in  the  church.  He  made 
it  rain  excommunications — he  was  always  excommuni- 
cating somebody,  or  taking  off  the  curses  of  the  church 
for  grushes.  He  excommunicated  one  man  for  not 
inviting  him  to  a  feast ;  and  he  hurled  the  same  spiritual 
thunderbolt  at  the  head  of  another  who  had  sold  some 
fish  in  the  market  which  he  wanted  for  his  own  table. 
Our  host  the  hekim,  a  Catholic  from  the  islands  of  the 
Archipelago,  had  a  few  years  ago  taken  for  his  second 
wife  a  young  Bayah  Greek  of  Pivades  (an  excellent 
little  woman,  an  admirable  housekeeper,  and  an  exem- 
plary wife  and  mother),  and  the  despotos  had  instantly 


Chap.  XXVIU.    GREEK  PRIESTHOOD  AT  SELYYRIA.  485 

excommimicated  the  bride.  At  first  she  was  very,  very 
unhappy ;  she  was  afraid  that  all  her  own  people  would 
forsake  her,  and  that  it  would  fare  ill  with  her  hereafter  ; 
but  the  doctor  would  not  bribe  the  bishop,  her  relatives 
and  friends  stood  by  her  in  spite  of  the  interdict,  and 
she  was  now  quietly  subsiding  into  the  faith  of  her 
husband,  who  was  no  fanatic.  Only  a  few  weeks  ago 
there  had  been  a  forced  marriage,  and  a  forced  consum- 
mation—  all  effected  by  the  Greek  priests  and  the 
despotos,  who  finished  the  business  by  cudgelling  the 
unwilling  bride,  locking  the  door  upon  her  and  the 
bridegroom,  and  putting  the  key  in  his  pocket.  We 
saw  the  poor  girl  during  our  stay,  the  very  image  of 
wretchedness  and  despair;  she  loved  a  young  fellow 
who  was  very  handsome,  but  very  poor ;  his  ill-visaged 
rival  was  rich  and  had  bribed  the  priesthood.  By  the 
canons  of  the  Greek  Church  the  bishops  must  be  celiba- 
tarians, and  the  inferior  clergy  monygamists.  A  priest 
of  this  place  lost  his  wife,  and,  like  Papas  LoUio,  who 
turned  brigand,  he  wanted  to  marry  another.  For  a 
good  round  sum  Uie  despotos  allowed  him  to  cut  off  his 
beard,  marry,  and  turn  barber.  Another  priest  was 
not  quite  so  lucky  in  his  re-matrimonial  proceedings, 
having  been  seized  and  exiled  to  a  horrible  place.  He 
had  attempted  to  cheat  the  bishop,  pretending  that  his 
dead  wife  and  live  wife  were  one  and  the  same  person ; 
that  his  original  spouse  had  never  died  or  been  buried 
at  all,  but  had  merely  made  a  long  journey  which  had 
much  altered  her  personal  appearance.  Admission 
into  holy  orders  was  sold  to  the  most  illiterate  men  and 
often  to  the  greatest  scamps.  But  everything  in  the 
Church,  from  the  Patriarchate  downwards,  was  bought 


486  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIH. 

and  sold.  Not  long  ago  the  bishop,  being  on  a  journey 
through  his  diocese  to  see  what  he  could  de^?ouT,  made 
a  priest  of  a  backal's  son,  who  could  not  read,  and  who 
had  no  inclination  to  learn.  The  price  paid  by  the  vil- 
lager was  1500  piastres,  or  little  more  than  141.  of  our 
money.  The  son  soon  repented  of  his  bargain,  and 
wanted  to  unmake  himself.  ^*  Give  me  500  piastres 
more,"  quoth  the  bishop.  The  money  was  paid,  and 
from  being  a  priest  the  young  man  returned  to  keep  a 
chandler  s  shop.  A  gardener  of  Selyvria,  a  man  forty 
years  old,  totally  illiterate,  and  a  terrible  drunkard, 
lately  bought  himself  into  the  priesthood,  and  was  now 
levying  contributions  on  the  people.  Dispensations  and 
absolutions,  even  for  the  most  heinous  crimes,  are  con- 
stantly on  sale.  Quite  recently,  in  a  Greek  village 
near  Selyvria,  a  man  killed  his  own  brother.  The 
murderer  went  to  Constantinople,  and  paid  1000 
piastres  to  the  patriarch,  and  the  patriarch  gave  him 
an  absolution  in  writing ;  this  he  brought  to  Selyvria, 
together  with  500  piastres  for  the  bishop,  and  then  the 
absolution  was  publicly  read  in  the  church :  the  murderer 
paid  a  small  sum  to  his  brother's  widow,  and  was  now 
free  and  unmolested,  the  Turks  taking  no  notice  what- 
ever of  the  murder. 

All  this  is  attended  with  most  pernicious  moral  con- 
sequences ;  and  tlie  Greeks  here  are  beginning  to  couple 
a  disregard  of  religion  with  their  disrespect  for  their 
clergy. 

Mi&sulmans  and  Rayahs  all  were  complaining  of  a 
dreadful  increase  of  taxation.  Municipal  funds  were 
taken  from  the  town  and  applied  by  government  to 
other  purposes.     Certain  sums  were  annually  allotted 


Chap.  XXVin:      SELYVBIA  — GROSS  ABUSES.  487 

to  mend  the  rough  roads  and  keep  the  bridges  in  repair ; 
these  monies  had  been  appropriated  by  govemment  that 
never  spent  a  piastre  on  roads  or  bridges.  It  was  the 
same  with  other  communal  charges.  For  the  protection 
of  rural  property  the  town  paid  so  many  thousand 
piastres  per  annum  for  the  maintenance  of  a  sort  of 
garde  cfiampetre.  The  govemment  took  this  money, 
engaging  to  defray  that  expense  and  improve  the  guard. 
The  first  year  they  did  appoint  and  pay  a  few  men,  but 
the  next  year  they  did  nothing  of  the  sort,  nor  had  they 
done  anything  since.  The  town  now  paid  the  tax  to 
govemment,  and  had  to  hire  and  pay  the  guard  besides. 
The  Sultan's  tithe  on  lambs  and  kids  was  farmed  out, 
and  these  speculators  were  excessively  rapacious  and 
unjust.  They  had  been  demanding  the  tithe  not  merely 
on  the  lambs  dropped  this  season,  but  also  on  the  ewes 
and  rams.  Petitions  had  been  sent  to  Constantinople, 
but  no  redress  had  been  obtained. 

The  situation  of  the  upper  town  is  fine,  and  would 
be  very  beautiful  if  the  neighbouring  hills  were  not 
so  bare  of  trees.  The  whole  of  the  ancient  town 
stood  on  the  mount,  and  was  surrounded  by  strong  lof^y 
walls,  of  which,  as  restored  during  the  Lower  Empire, 
great  masses  remain.  The  Turks  call  all  this  upper 
town  the  Hissar  or  Castle;  but  the  real  Castle,  occu- 
pying the  site  of  the  Acropolis,  was  on  a  broad  flat  at 
the  summit  of  the  hill.  Up  there,  the  walls  and  battle- 
ments,  built  in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  chiefly  with  an- 
cient material,  are  almost  entire ;  and  at  sunset,  and  in 
the  dusk  of  the  evening,  when  armies  of  bats  were  on 
the  wing,  and  owls  hooting  in  the  ivied  towers,  and 
cucuvajas  waiKng  and  flitting  all  about,  the  scene  was 


I 


488  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIH. 

romantic  and  most  melancholy.  Within  this  inclosure 
were  the  ruins  of  a  Greek  church,  containing  some 
marbles  which  had  evidently  belonged  to  an  ancient 
temple.  The  church  was  square  below,  rounding  away 
into  a  dome  or  cupola  above,  just  like  the  Turkish 
mosques,  which,  internally,  are  but  copies  of  Byzantine 
architecture.  The  dome  had  fallen  in,  or,  what  is  more 
probable,  had  been  broken  in  by  the  destructive  Mus- 
sulmans. To  the  north  of  this  ruined  church  there  was 
an  immense  mass  of  old  wall  on  the  edge  of  the  lofty 
cliff  overhanging  the  sea.  The  view  across  the  Fro- 
pontis  was  magnificent  Here,  on  this  fair  elevated 
esplanade,  stood  a  town  that  was  old  in  the  days  of 
Herodotus.  Destroyed  by  war,  this  Thracian  Sely- 
vrium  had  several  successors,  each  in  turns  furnishing 
materials  for  the  construction  of  another.  Some  Greek 
inscriptions  stuck  into  the  present  walls  appear  to  be  of 
a  date  subsequent  to  the  conquest  of  the  country  by  the 
Romans ;  others  are  of  the  Lower  Empire.  Over  one 
of  the  five  gates  is  an  inscription  of  the  ninth  century, 
bearing  the  name  of  the  Empress  Theodora,  the  wife  of 
Theophilus,  who  is  believed  to  have  built  the  church. 
When  Mahomet  II.  burst  into  Constantinople,  it  was 
to  Selyvria  that  crowds  of  the  dismayed  Greeks  fled,  as 
to  the  nearest  place  of  refuge. 

On  part  of  the  area  of  the  Acropolis,  and  under  the 
shadow  of  the  stem  massive  walls  of  the  Lower  Empire, 
was  the  filthy  Jewish  quarter,  where  the  wooden  houses 
were  all  falling  to  pieces,  and  where  everybody  appeared 
to  be  very  poor.  The  children,  however,  were  very 
numerous,  and  some  of  them  very  pretty.  Lower  down, 
and  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  old  town,  we  visited  the 


■fc  iwu.     ■     iif    »a.jL'  "^■^B^paeg^— 1— ^^^mpip^wpiP 


Chap.  XXVIII.    GREEK  MIDDLE-AGE  ARCHITECTURE.       489 

Hissar  Jami,  an  old  Greek  church  turned  into  a  mosque 
at  the  conquest)  and  now,  like  several  other  mosques  in 
the  town,  abandoned  by  the  decreasing  Turks  as  a  place 
of  worship.  The  conquerors  had  run  up  a  minaret  at 
one  of  the  angles.  Little  else  was  necessary,  when  altar 
and  screen  had  been  removed,  and  pictures  covered  over 
with  plaster  and  whitewash,  to  convert  a  Christian 
church  into  a  Mussulman  temple.  In  the  course  of  our 
travels  we  saw  many  old  churches  thus  appropriated, 
where  the  Turks  had  given  themselves  no  toil  or 
trouble  except  merely  to  add  one  or  two  minarets.  A 
number  of  Greeks  followed  us  to  the  spot.  An  old 
woman  said,  with  deep  feeling,   ^^  This  church  belonged 

to  Christ,  to  the  Virgin,  and  to  us,  and  rtow /    But 

we  shall  have  it  again !  The  Turks  cannot  keep  it ; 
they  make  no  use  of  it  for  religion ;  the  Turks  are  going 
out  I "  •  It  was  an  exceedingly  interesting  specimen  of 
Greek  Middle- Age  architecture,  built  chiefly  of  the  flat 
Roman  brick,  and  having  at  its  east  end  three  curious 
circular  projections,  and  very  curious,  small,  round- 
headed  arches.  The  crypt  was  much  more  extensive 
than  the  church,  and  most  admirably  built  of  Boman 
brick.  It  was  formed  of  a  succession  of  arches,  which, 
if  left  to  themselves,  would  endure  for  ever;  but  a 
savage,  senseless  destruction  had  been  at  work,  and  the 
crypt  was  encumbered  with  rubbish  and  filth.  On  the 
floor  of  the  mosque  or  church  above,  some  Turks  were 
drying  heaps  of  flowers  of  the  marsh-mallow,  of  which 
they  make  some  medicinal  decoction. 

*  The  Muflsulmans,  well  aware  of  these  feelings  and  hopes,  very  reluc- 
tantly show  to  a  Christian  any  mosque  that  has  heen  a  chwrchn  Hence 
the  difficulty  of  obtaining  admittance  into  8anta  Sophia  at  Constantinople. 


^l^fgjSSmSSImtlfSmmm'afKtKmmmi»*mmmmmmm00mmmngmmmm0mm  ■■  ■      u   ■  h  ■ 


490  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXVUI, 

There  was  a  narrow  zone  of  cultivation  round  the 
town,  and  beyond  that  a  wilderness — a  succession  of 
undulating  downs,  without  a  house,  or  a  hut,  or  a  single 
tree.  In  the  midst  of  the  town  there  were  some  gar- 
dens and  trees,  and  tall  cypresses.  About  ten  years 
ago,  when  Turkish  troops  were  stationed  here,  a  tasteful 
Bimbashi  planted  some  hundreds  of  tre^  to  form  a 
pleasant  avenue  from  the  south  suburb  of  the  town  to 
the  long  bridge.  The  trees  took  root,  and,  while  he 
was  here,  flourished ;  but  as  soon  as  the  Bimbashi  was 
removed,  the  destructionists  began  to  cut  them  down, 
and  now  not  a  stick  remained.  At  that  side  of  Selyvria 
there  is  a  small  stone  bridge  of  three  arches,  across  a 
stream  which  was  now  stagnant ;  and  a  little  farther  on 
there  is  a  very  long  stone  bridge  of  thirty-two  arches, 
which  crossed  two  stagnant  streams  and  a  broad  marsh, 
covered  with  deep  water  in  winter-time.  Both  bridges 
are  rough  and  slovenly,  but  strong.  At  the  edge  of  the 
town,  a  little  above  the  smaller  bridge,  in  a  foul,  damp, 
unhealthy  place,  the  Greeks  had  an  agiasma^  or  holy 
fountain,  which  they  held  in  great  reverence,  celebrating 
an  annual  festa  on  the  spot  The  Turkish  fanatics 
amused  themselves  by  polluting  the  place  in  all  manner 
of  ways,  and  by  throwing  dead  dogs  into  the  holy  foun- 
tain ;  but  the  Mussulmans  also  had  a  fountain  which 
they  much  venerated,  and  the  water  of  which  they  pre- 
ferred to  all  other ;  and  there  were  Greek  fanatics  as 
well  as  Turkish,  and  generally  the  Greeks  are  prone  to 
vendetta.  The  Mussulman  fountain  was  at  the  side  of 
a  bank  a  little  beyond  the  long  bridge,  in  a  lonely  place. 
One  dark  night  some  palikari  threw  the  stripped  body 
of  a  dead  man  into  the  fountain.    Whether  they  had 


Chap.  XXVIU.       MURDER  WITH  IMPUNITY.  491 

murdered  him  themselves,  or  whether  they  found  him 
aflber  he  had  been  murdered  by  others,  was  never  pre- 
cisely known ;  but  the  first  Turk  that  went  to  draw 
water  on  the  following  morning  at  the  fountain,  found 
its  mouth  choked  by  the  naked  corpse  I  He  retreated 
with  horror,  and  from  that  time  no  Mussulman  would 
drink  of  the  polluted  stream. 

It  happened  now  aod  then  in  this  neighbourhood  that 
an  honest  man  got  a  shock  to  his  nerves  by  finding  a 
poor  fellow  with  his  throat  cut,  or  with  his  head  taken 
fairly  off.  Honest  men's  nerves,  however,  are  not  very 
sensitive  in  these  parts :  people  get  accustomed  to  every- 
thing. Some  two  years  ago,  Yorghi,  then  a  mere  strip- 
ling, being  out  shooting,  entered  a  quiet  little  valley 
opening  upon  the  sea,  at  the  distance  of  three  or  four 
miles  from  Selyvria,  He  found  there  a  donkey  browsing 
all  alone.  A  little  farther  on,  his  dog  stopped  and 
barked  at  something  in  a  bush.  Approaching  the  spot, 
he  saw  a  rough  brown  coat,  such  as  is  usually  worn  by 
Bulgarians.  The  dog  now  barked  fearfully ;  and  Yorghi, 
going  behind  the  bush,  found  first  a  man's  head,  and 
then,  at  some  distance,  a  human  body.  He  clearly 
made  out  that  the  murdered  man  was  a  Bulgarian,  but 
he  did  not  give  up  his  sport :  he  continued  shooting 
until  sunset,  and  when  he  reached  home  he  told  his 
father  of  the  rencontre.  The  hekim  went  to  the  Turkish 
governor,  who  heard  the  story  with  great  indifference, 
and  said  that  they  had  better  not  make  any  stir  about  it 
The  next  day  some  men  were  sent  to  the  valley  to  dig 
a  hole,  and  bury  head  and  body  together,  and  bring  in 
the  poor  ass ;  and  that  being  done,  no  fiirther  notice 
was  taken  of  the  murder  by  the  Turks :  yet  it  was  ascer^ 


492  TURKEY  A^D  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVUI. 

tained,  almost  to  a  certainty,  that  the  victim  had  been 
working  at  a  neighbouring  chiftlik,  had  purchased  an 
ass,  and  was  returning  home  with  five  thousand  piastres 
in  his  girdle,  and  that  the  murderer  was  a  Turk  who 
was  still  employed  at  the  same  farm,  and  who  had  pre- 
viously made  himself  notorious  along  the  country  side. 
There  were  people  who  had  seen  the  fierce  Turk  fol- 
lowing the  Bulgarian  from  the  chiillik. 

Here,  in  Europe,  we  heard  of  more  robberies  and 
murders  in  a  day  than  came  to  our  ears  in  Asia  Minor 
in  a  month.  A  very  devil,  in  the  shape  of  a  khodja, 
or  Turkish  schoolmaster,  had  recently  taken  to  the  road 
with  two  comrades,  and  was  robbing  con  vigore  e  rigore. 
The  trio  were  haunting  the  woods  between  Sely  vria  and 
Kirk-Klissia.  Some  time  ago  a  Mussulman  had  been 
found,  shot  through  the  body,  and  cold  dead,  in  those 
woods,  which  are  never  altogether  free  from  bad  sub- 
jects. But  this  man  had  not  fallen  among  thieves ;  he 
had  been  dispatched  by  another  Mussulman  of  Kirk- 
Klissia,  to  whom  he  had  given  some  mortal  offence. 
The  enmity,  the  rancour  between  the  two,  was  known 
to  the  whole  town.  But  the  murderer  was  a  Mussul- 
man, and  poor.  So  it  was  resolved  to  fix  the  crime 
upon  a  Christian  and  a  Greek  Bayah  who  was  rick. 
After  several  weeks  had  passed,  they  selected  a  quiet^ 
respectable  Greek,  who,  on  account  of  his  prosperity, 
had  become  an  object  of  envy  with  his  Tchorbajees,  or 
primates.  The  poor  Hadji,  at  the  time  of  the  murder, 
was  absent  on  business :  he  could  bring  people  to  swear 
that  he  was  120  miles  off,  at  Fhilipopoli.  But  these 
witnesses  were  Christians,  whose  evidence  could  not  be 
taken  against  that  of  true  believers,  who,  being  hired 


«IH» 


Chap.  XXVni.    KIBK-KLISSIA— A  PILGRIM-SHIP.  493 

for  the  purpose,  swore  that  they  had  seen  the  Hadji 
enter  the  woods  with  a  gun  on  his  shoulder  the  day  the 
Turk  was  found  dead.  After  a  dreadful  imprisonment 
and  long  suffering,  the  poor  Hadji  saved  his  life ;  but 
when  he  had  paid  the  blood -money  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased,  and  discharged  all  the  claims  made  upon  him 
by  the  Turkish  courts  of  law  and  the  Turkish  governor, 
and  his  own  priests,  all  the  substance,  for  which  he  had 
toiled  and  traded  many  years,  was  gone,  and  he  came 
out  of  his  prison  a  pauper. 

Our  host,  the  doctor,  had  lived  two  years  in  Kirk- 
Klissia,  which  is  about  twenty-six  hours  from  Selyvria, 
and  a  very  large  town  for  this  country,  containing  about 
3000  houses,  of  which  2000  are  Greek,  50  or  60 
Jewish,  and  some  800  occupied  by  Turks  or  by  Bul- 
garians— for  here  a  good  many  Bulgarians  (seldom 
stationary  below  Philipopoli)  have  become  resident 
proprietors,  and  have  obtained  some  little  prosperity. 

In  the  little  bay  of  Selyvria  there  was  an  Hellenic 
brig,  which  had  been  a  noted  pilgrim^ship,  and  had 
carried  many  Hadjis  down  to  the  Holy  Land.  The 
Greek  skipper  had  made  money  by  the  pilgrims,  and 
had  now  turned  timber-merchant.  He  had  brought 
over  trunks  of  trees,  unshaped,  all  in  the  rough,  from 
the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Propontis,  and  was  selling  them 
to  the  Ionian  Greeks.  He  said  that  the  trade  was  not 
very  profitable,  but  that  the  timber  gave  him  far  less 
trouble  than  the  pilgrims. 

On  the  "  May-day  **  there  walked  through  Selyvria 
two  peripatetic^  far-travelling,  much-enduring,  young 
German  tailors,  who  were  going  to  improve  themselves 
and  exercise  their  calling  at  Constantinople.   Such  artists 


I 
/ 


494  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXVIH. 

often  pass  this  way,  with  sticks  in  their  hands  and  very 
light  wallets  at  their  backs,  after  having  traversed  the 
whole  of  Boumelia  on  foot  A  friend  we  had  in  the 
town — a  gossiping  Greek  tailor  from  the  island  of  Sjrra 
—could  not  for  his  life  conceive  how,  of  all  men  in  the 
world,  tailors  could  so  travel.  The  wanderschaft  was 
to  him  a  system  totally  unintelligible.  As  it  is  seldom 
that  these  Schneiders  can  find  work  on  the  road,  they 
beg  for  what  they  want  in  the  towns  and  villages.  Our 
Syriote  gave  his  obolus  to  the  wanderers  when  called 
upon  ;  and  of  late  this  had  happened  rather  frequently. 
On  Tuesday,  the  2nd  of  May,  we  started  in  a  caique 
for  Heraclea.  Our  three  boatmen  were  Mussulmans, 
one  of  them  being  a  very  black  Nubian.  They  were 
three  simple,  honest,  good-natured  fellows,  and  young 
and  merry.  We  were  impeded  by  a  strong  south  wind, 
so  that  the  men  had  to  row  all  the  way.  It  was  a  soli- 
tary coast,  lumpy  and  bare.  For  miles  and  miles  no 
house,  no  hut,  no  tree,  no  bush,  no  living  thing.  At 
4  P.M.  we  were  abreast  of  a  large  village  on  a  hill-side, 
a  good  way  inland.  At  4.30  we  saw  a  chiftlik  be- 
longing to  Halil  the  Capitan  Fasha,  and  brother-in- 
law  of  the  Sultan.  It  was  a  desolate-looking  place : 
near  the  shore  there  stood  a  square  stone  tower,  like 
that  on  Antonacki's  farm,  some  granaries,  stables,  and 
hovels ;  but  a  few  tall  green  trees  lent  a  beauty  to  the 
spot.  At  5.15  we  were  off  a  small  hamlet  which  the 
Greeks  call  "  Old  Heraclea."  It  had  five  or  six  hovels 
and  no  ancient  ruins.  Near  to  ihis  place  was  the 
chiftlik  of  the  old  Cephaloniote  Macri,  who  had  now 
seven  Ionian  Greeks  and  about  thirty  Bulgarians  em- 
ployed upon  it,  and  who  would  have  had  forty  more 


Chaf.  XXVin.     HEBACLEA  —  THE  ACROPOLIS.  -^95 

■ 

peasants  from  his  owd  island  if  he  had  been  allowed. 
At  6  P.M.  we  landed,  to  walk  across  a  point  of  land  to 
Heraclea,  leaving  the  boat  to  be  rowed  round  the  jutting 
promontory,  and  leaving  in  it  all  our  money  and  what- 
ever we  had,  with  the  pleasing  certainty  that  the  honest 
fellows  would  bring  everything  to  us  as  we  left  it. 

Where  we  expected  a  pleasant  walk  we  found  a 
detestable  path,  wet  and  deep  in  mud,  with  stagnating 
waters  at  every  hundred  yards,  ready  to  emit  malaria 
so  soon  as  the  hot  weather  should  set  in.  There  was 
some  slight  cultivation  in  corn,  flax,  and  haricot-beans ; 
but  most  of  the  country  was  a  mere  sheep-walk.  Yet 
from  a  gentle  ridge  we  had  one  of  the  finest  sunset  views 
I  ever  beheld :  the  port  of  Heraclea,  forming  a  deep 
inlet,  and  nearly  land-locked,  lay  at  our  feet,  like  a 
calm  inland  lake ;  the  picturesque  old  town,  with  its 
houses,  mosques,  and  minarets,  and  windmills,  rising 
one  above  another,  stood  on  an  opposite  hill,  and  beyond 
the  narrow  isthmus  at  the  head  of  the  port  there  flowed 
the  blue  waves  of  the  Propontis,  and  beyond  them  the 
glorious  picture  was  closed  by  the  heights  of  Fandermk 
and  of  Cyzicus,  by  the  lofty  island  of  Marmora  and  the 
bold  connecting  lines  of  the  Asiatic  coast.  Descending 
from  this  ridge,  we  passed  some  massy  fragments  of 
old  walls,  went  through  a  large  mandra,  smelling  strong 
of  mutton  and  goat^  and  entered  the  town  in  the  dusk 
of  the  evening.  We  slept  on  the  floor  in  a  dirty  little 
room  over  a  Greek  backal's  shop. 

On  the  following  morning  we  rose  with  the  sun  to 
walk  about  the  town  and  over  the  Acropolis.  On  the 
hill-top  there  were  but  very  slight  traces  of  the  most 
ancient  Heraclea,  which,  like  so  many  other  cities  that 


^.^Igmmimfmmmmmm^- "^mmmm^m^^   -       ■■-     -^^^mr   „——-"•—  -  ■-  "T 


496  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVUl. 

bore  the  name,  is  supposed  to  have  been  first  founded 
by  the  great  Phoenician  navigator  and  colonizer.  The 
ground  was  strewed  with  broken  bits  of  marble:  in 
many  places  it  was  hollow  under  foot,  and  our  drogo- 
man,  who  was  not  without  his  dreams  of  hidden  treasure, 
would  gladly  have  gone  into  an  excavating  speculation. 
In  digging,  on  the  hill,  ancient  coins,  intaglios,  etc.  are 
occasionally  found.  Five  droll  squat  Turkish  wind- 
mills stood  along  the  ridge.  In  the  undulating  plain 
beneath  us  we  counted  six  of  those  t^e  or  tumuli  which 
are  so  numerous  in  all  this  part  of  Thrace.  A  ruined 
Greek  church,  covered  with  storks  and  their  nests,  was 
at  our  feet ;  but  a  span-new  church  had  risen  at  the  edge 
of  the  town.  We  could  see  only  one  small  mosque  that 
was  in  good  order  and  still  used  as  a  place  of  worship. 
Here,  as  almost  everywhere  else,  the  Turks  were  occu- 
pying the  lowest  and  most  unhealthy  part  of  the  town, 
and  were  fast  disappearing.  A  Greek  tchorbajee  told 
us  that  there  were  300  houses  in  all ;  but  except  a  few 
Greek  habitations  which  had  been  recently  erected, 
nearly  all  the  rest  were  mere  hovels.  About  a  dozen 
small  country  craft  were  anchored  in  the  beautiful  little 
port,  which,  seen  from  this  point,  has  the  form  of  a 
horseshoe.  Last  year  (1847),  that  year  of  extraor- 
dinary export  trade,  English  vessels  took  in  cargoes  of 
produce  here  as  well  as  at  Selyvria  and  Rodostd. 
Down  in  the  town  the  people  had  generally  a  very 
unhealthy  appearance.  The  market  was  dreadfully 
bare :  we  could  get  nothing  for  breakfast  but  black  coffee 
and  some  sour  bread.  The  only  milk  tihey  had  was 
ewes*  milk. 

Sending  our  boat  round  from  the  port,  we  walked 


Chap.  XXVm.  HERACLEA  — KALIVRIA.  497 

across  the  low  isthmus  by  a  short  direct  path.  Here 
we  found  more  marshes — pools  of  stagnant  water  which 
approached  the  very  skirts  of  the  town,  and  which  might 
be  drained  at  a  very  trifling  expense.  We  met  an  old 
Greek  fisherman,  who  was  trudging  from  the  sea-shore 
to  the  town  with  a  very  fine  fish  in  his  hand.  We 
wanted  to  buy  it,  but  he  told  us  that  he  must  take  it  to 
his  despotos.  As  our  boat  had  not  yet  come  round  the 
promontory,  we  had  some  talk  with  the  grey-beard :  he 
said  that  Heraclea  had  only  150  houses,  of  which 
exactly  100  were  Greek ;  that  for  a  very  long  time  the 
Greeks  could  not  possess  more  than  70  houses,  evil 
spirits  knocking  down  old  houses  as  fast  as  new  ones 
were  built.  This  is  a  common  superstition  in  the 
country. 

At  8  A.M.  we  embarked.  A  gentle  north  wind  helped 
us  on  our  way,  but  it  soon  failed.  Towards  mid-day 
the  weather  became  terribly  hot.  We  had  nothing  to 
shelter  us  from  the  heat  and  glare  ;  the  Sea  of  Marmora 
was  like  a  sheet  of  glass  hot  from  the  fiimace.  This 
heat  would  soon  bring  out  the  malaria  from  the  stagnant 
waters,  and.then  the  people  of  Heraclea  would  wonder 
why  they  should  be  so  afllicted.  A  little  after  noon  we 
saw  a  small  Greek  village  up  in  the  hills,  called 
Kalivria — the  first  houses  we  had  seen  since  leaving 
Heraclea.  Being  scorched  and  thirsty,  we  landed  by  the 
blocked-up  mouth  of  another  little  river,  to  procure 
some  water. 

Half  an  hour  farther  down  the  coast  we  saw  a  tumulus 
close  to  the  edge  of  the  low  sea-clifis.  As  the  day 
advanced  the  weather  suddenly  became  covered  and 
quite  cold.    What  a  climate  in  spring!     At  noon  I 

VOL.  II.  2  k 


498  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIII. 

was  thinking  of  coups  de  soleil;  at  2  p.m.  I  was  shiver- 
ing in  the  boat 

Aa  we  approached  Bodostb  a  pretty  effect  was  pro- 
duced by  a  few  dozens  of  tall  very  thin  poplars,  disposed 
in  lines  like  cypresses.  At  3  p.m.  we  landed  at  the 
filthy  scala  of  Bodostb. 

We  had  letters  to  Mr,  C.  S ,  who  had  recently 

managed  a  farm  in  this  vicinity  belonging  to  English* 
men,  and  who  had  previously  been  a  sergeant  of 
artillery.  He  had  come  to  the  country  with  Colonel 
Williams.  Unfortunately  he  had  left  Bodostb  on  some 
business  at  Constantinople  two  or  three  days  before  our 
arrival.  But,  while  serving  in  Malta,  he  had  picked  up 
a  comfortable  notable  little  Maltese  wife,  who  received 
us  very  hospitably  and  sent  for  one  of  her  husband's 
friends  and  comrades  to  do  the  honours  and  show  us 
the  town.  This  was  a  very  intelligent  man,  who  had 
lived  long  in  the  place  and  was  well  acquainted  with  all 
the  neighbouring  country.  My  first  inquiries  were 
about  the  English  chiftlik  at  Osmanleu,  which  vxia  to 
have  been  another  model  farm.  The  land,  12  miles  in 
eircumference,  was  purchased  about  six  y^ars  ago  for 
100,000  piastres,  or  considerably  less  than  lOOOZ.     The 

purchasers  were  Colonel  W and  a  nephew  of  Mr, 

H y  whose  agricultural  exploits  at  Tuzlar  have  been 

already  celebrated.  Of  the  two  proprietors,  one  was 
rarely  on  the  spot,  and  the  other  was  in  England :  the 

chief  direction  therefore  remained  with  Mr.  H , 

who  wanted  immediate  returns  of  profit  without  doing 
anything  in  the  way  of  substantial  improvement  Two 
or  three  English  ploughs  and  a  few  other  agricultural 
implements  were  brought  out ;  but  the  rough  Bulgarian 


Chap.  XXVIII.    ENGLISH  CHIFTLIK  AT  OSMANLEU.  499 

labourers  would  not  use  them,  and  soon  broke  tbem.     I 

believe  Mr.  S ,  who  was  sent  to  live  on  the  farm, 

was  an  English  farmer  s  son  and  knew  something  of  the 
business ;  but  he  could  get  nothing  done  properly  by  his 

only  hands,  the  Bulgarians ;  and  he,  or  Mr.  H , 

came  to  the  conclusion  that,  where  land  was  so  plen- 
tiful and  cost  next  to  nothing,  it  was  unnecessary  to 
aim  at  improving  the  soil,  or  to  introduce  manures  or 
rotations  of  crops,  or  anything  of  the  sort.  Scratched 
by  a  Turkish  plough,  a  field  would  give  a  certain  crop 
of  wheat  or  barley ;  next  year  and  the  year  after  that 
the  field  could  be  left  fallow,  and  another  patch  or  other 
patches  might  be  brought  under  the  plougL  With  a 
farm  12  miles  round,  why  limit  oneself?  So  they  went 
on  farming  h  la  Turque;  and  all  idea  of  setting  an 
improving  English  example  to  the  slovenly,  ignorant 
men  of  the  country — which  alone  could  render  the 
speculation  interesting  or  in  any  way  worthy  of  notice 
— was  entirely  lost  sight  of  S put  the  tumble- 
down house  a  little  in  order,  but  in  all  other  respects 
the  farm  remained  a  Turkish  chiftlik^  an  opprobrium  in 
agriculture.  The  man  was  discouraged :  it  was  only  just 
before  he  was  turned  o£P  that  he  planted  a  few  potatoes 
and  began  to  make  a  hedge  or  two.  The  air  was  good 
and  wholesome,  but  otherwise  there  was  very  little  dif* 
ference  between  this  Osmanleu  and  Tuzlar.     Last  year 

Mr.  H sold  it  with  all  the  stock  upon  it  to  a  Turk, 

for  180,600  piastres.     On  the  death  of  poor  Kir-Yani 

at  Ghemlik,  Mr.  H wished  to  transport  S to 

Tuzlar;  but  the  ex-artilleryman  was  not  so  siUi/  as  to 
go — ^he  knew  how  many  overseers  had  been  killed  there 
by  malaria.     He  was  now  trying  to  do  a  little  business 

2k2 


500  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIIL 

in  produce  on  his  own  account^  or  on  account  of  houses 
at  Constantinople,  and  he  was  acting  as  a  consular  agent 
without  having  a  farthing  of  English  pay.  He  deserved 
better  encouragement:  he  had  learned  the  Turkish 
language,  and  was  active  and  intelligent  In  a  place 
where  a  book  was  not  to  be  seen  he  had  a  little  library. 
In  his  neat  and  cleanly  house,  in  the  midst  of  a  most 
gross,  sordid,  barbarous  people,  I  read  through  his  copy 
of  the  works  of  Charles  Lamb  with  a  most  excellent 
relish.  I  would  have  hugged  the  dear,  well-known 
book  anywhere ;  but  to  find  the  ^  Essays  of  Elia ' 
here,  was  like  finding  sweet  water  in  a  dry,  salt 
desert. 

We  stayed  all  the  following  day  and  night  at  Rodostbt, 
a  place  admirably  adapted  by  nature  to  be  the  seat  of 
a  considerable  commerce.  Mr.  S 's  comrade  col- 
lected for  us  all  the  information  he  could,  and  took  us 
to  some  other  inhabitants  of  the  town,  who  answered 
my  queries.  As  I  made  many  inquiries  about  the 
state  of  agriculture,  they  concluded  I  wanted  to  pur- 
chase a  farm.  There  were  plenty  on  sale,  and  going 
for  nothing  I  Close  by  there  was  the  chifUik  of  tlie 
great  Izzet  Pasha,  which  was  quite  as  extensive  as  the 

farm  which  Mr.  H had  sold.     The  Pasha  had 

ceded  it  to  an  Armenian  seraff,  in  part  payment  of  a 
long  and  heavy  debt  Thus  goes  land  and  everything 
else  to  the  usurers  I  The  serafl^  having  no  tast«  for 
agriculture,  wanted  to  sell  it,  and  it  might  be  bought 
for  about  800^.,  with  the  house  and  all  that  was 
upon  it. 

Those  who  are  managing  the  Imperial  manufactories, 
to  the  ruination  of  the  Sultan,  thwart  all  individual 


Chap.  XXVIII.  R0D0ST6.  501 

enterprise,  and  will  not  permit  private  speculations  to 
prosper.  Not  long  ago  an  Englishman,  knowing  that 
the  country-people  only  sold  the  linseed  and  threw 
away  the  good  flax,  which  they  grow  rather  abundantly, 
endeavoured  to  establish  a  linen  manufactory  at  Ro- 
dostb :  but  every  obstacle  was  raised  in  his  path,  and 
he  was  driven  away  in  despair  from  the  place.  One 
Dobrd,  a  Bulgarian,  of  Selymnia,  and  a  friend  of  my 
informant's,  had  travelled  and  lived  in  Germany,  and 
had  there  learned  the  art  of  making  good  woollen  cloth. 
Returning  to  his  own  country,  he  set  up  a  cloth-factory 
at  Selymnia,  having  secured  for  his  patron  and  partner 
no  less  a  personage  than  Halil  Fasha,  one  of  the  Sultan's 
brothers-in-law.  Dobro  got  to  work,  made  good  ser- 
viceable cloth  at  a  cheap  rate,  prospered,  and  excited 
the  envy  of  the  Armenians  at  Stamboul.  Halil  Pasha 
gave  up  the  man  and  the  concern,  the  factory  was 
stopped,  Dobrb  was  involved  in  lawsuits  and  ruin,  and 
is  now  a  beggar. 

In  the  year  1847  Rodostb  exported  to  England 
400,000  kilos  of  com,  and  to  France  and  Algeria 
90,000  kilos  of  barley,  a  good  deal  of  linseed,  and  some 
oats.  In  the  winter  season  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to 
load  ships  out  in  the  roadstead.  There  has  long  been 
a  talk  of  making  a  harbour,  and  the  work  is  already 
half  done  by  the  hand  of  nature.  Mr.  Sang  might 
have  connected  a  ridge  of  rocks,  and  have  thrown 
out  a  splendid  pier  long  ago,  if  means  had  been 
put  at  his  disposal.  When  he  had  been  doing  no- 
thing for  years,  the  Government,  or  their  Armenian 
agents,  brought  out  M.  Foirel,  a  French  civil  engi- 
neer, who  was  sent  to  make  a  few  promenades,  and 


502  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIIL 

draw  up  a  few  reports  and  plans.  M.  Foirel  came 
round  to  Rodostb  last  year,  to  see,  and  survey,  and 
report ;  and  there  the  matter  rested,  and  there  it  was 
likely  to  rest* 

We  could  not  discover  in  the  town  any  s^ns  of 
improvement,  or  prosperity,  or  material  comfort.  The 
streets  were  most  filthy,  and  more  than  half  the  houses 
rotting  and  tumbling  down.  The  konacks  which  had 
been  occupied  by  Prince  Ragotsky  and  those  other 
fugitive  patriots  (unhappy  pensioners  of  the  Porte)  had 
long  since  disappeared.  The  people,  as  well  Mussul- 
mans as  Rayahs,  were  oppressed  by  the  Turkish 
Governor,  who  covered  himself  with  his  Council,  and 
pretended  to  do  everything  according  to  law  and  Tan- 
zimaut.  The  majority  of  the  Council,  as  in  all  other 
towns,  was  composed  of  Turks ;  the  Rayah  members 
seldom  attended,  and  when  they  did,  it  was  only  to  say, 
"Pekel"  and  **Evat  EffendimI"  Whenever  they 
displeased  the  Mudir,  he  arbitrarily  changed  them. 
The  population  had  increased  within  the  last  three  or 
four  years;  but  even  now  it  did  not  exceed  20,000, 
and  cholera  was  striduig  down  the  Propontis  to  thin  it.^ 
Of  these  not  nearly  one  half  were  Turks.  The  Ar- 
menians were  very  numerous  and  predominating ;  they 
gave  the  tone  to  the  place ;  they  seemed  to  monopolize 
everything,  even  to  the  suridjee  calling,  which  we  had 
almost  invariably  found  in  the  hands  of  the  Turks. 
Instead   of  being   toute    GrecquSy    as    a   late  French 

*  In  the  big  volume  about  Turkish  trade,  tariSsi  &c.,  presented  by  Mr. 
Macgregor,  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  to  both  Houses  of  Parliiunent  in  1S43, 
the  population  of  Rodostb  is  set  down  at  40,000.  But,  with  all  his 
statistical  parade,  this  writer  is  very  seldom  accurate.  The  book  abounds 
with  frwMircus  blunders. 


Chap.  XXVUI.  ROBOSTO.  503 

traveller  calls  it,*  the  city  of  Rodostb  may  rather  be 
styled  toute  ArmSnienne.  A  good  many  of  the  Turks 
and  all  the  native  Greeks  spoke  Armenian :  the  Greek 
women  dressed  in  the  Armenian  fashion,  covered  their 
faces,  and  lived  an  in-door  life  that  was  quite  Ar- 
menian. I  never  saw,  either  before  or  after,  any  such 
surrender  of  their  own  customs  on  the  part  of  the 
Greeks,  who  hate  the  Armenians  more  than  they  do 
the  Turks.  The  Jews  were  few  and  poor.  There  was 
only  one  real,  bon&  fide  Cephaloniote,  but  there  were 
several  Greeks  who  passed  for  lonians,  who  enjoyed 
the  important  advantage  of  English  protection,  and 
who  appeared  to  be  thriving. 

There  was  another  great  novelty — a  thing  we  never 
saw  except  at  Rodost5.  This  was  a  clock-house,  with 
a  big,  clumsy  clock,  striking  the  hours  according  to 
the  Turkish  computation  of  time.  There  appeared 
to  be  sixteen  mosques  in  all,  but  some  were  very 
small,  and  some  were  deserted  ruins.  In  the  upper 
part  of  the  town  there  was  a  large,  open,  dirty,  dusty 
square,  an  Armenian  cemetery,  with  its  flat  grave- 
stones, without  a  tree,  and  surrounded  by  dingy  Arme- 
nian houses  built,  as  usual,  of  wood.  The  Armenian 
dullness  had  infected  the  atmosphere  of  the  place: 
we  did  not  hear  a  laugh  or  see  a  cheerful  smile  in 
Bodostb.  Of  raki- drinking  we  saw  a  plenty,  but 
the  fellows  were  as  solemn  as  drunken  owls.  The 
views  from  the  hill-top  were,  of  course,  exceedingly 
fine :  the  lofty  Proconnesus  or  Marmora  lay  right 
before  us. 

*  Cyprien  Robert,  *  Les  Slaves  de  Tarqoie.'    As  inoorreot  as  if  he  werd 
4itatistical,  this  writer  kIso  gives  40,000  souk  to  Hodostb. 


504  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIII. 

On  Friday  the  5th  of  May,  at  6  a.m^  we  left  Rodosto 
and  the  sea  to  proceed  by  land  to  Adrianople.  We 
were  told  that  the  road  between  this  and  Babk-Eskissi 
was  very  dangerous,  that  the  Bulgarians  frequently 
robbed  and  murdered  passengers,  and  that  no  Frank 
ever  made  that  journey  without  a  guard.  We,  how- 
ever, declined  the  guard,  disbelieving  more  than  half 
that  was  told  us,  and  trusting  to  our  luck,  and  double- 
barrelled  gun  and  a  brace  of  pistols.  The  horses  were 
cripples;  our  suridjee  was  a  sullen,  dirty,  ugly  Ar- 
menian^ with  a  face  ploughed  up  by  the  small-pox,  and 
with  an  odour  of  garlic  that  made  one  stagger.  He 
carried  one  old  rusty  pistol  in  his  girdle.  Seeing  that 
the  weather  would  be  warm,  and  wishing  to  pass,  at  a 
distance,  for  a  Mussulman,  he  changed  his  black  turban 
for  a  white  one,  but  not  before  we  were  well  out  of  the 
town.  For  about  half  an  hour  we  rode  through  a  cul- 
tivated country,  with  inclosed  fields,  some  vineyards, 
and  a  pretty  sprinkling  of  trees.  We  then  got  upon 
a  green  wilderness,  beautifully  undulated,  but  bare  of 
everything  except  grass.  There  were  two  more  tumuli 
on  our  left,  and  in  that  direction  was  the  Fnglish 
chifllik.  In  a  bottom  we  were  bogged  in  the  mud  of  a 
terrible  morass.  Making  a  detour,  we  got  beyond  this 
slough  of  despond,  and  reached  a  little  underwood, 
near  to  which  were  a  small  flock  of  sheep  and  goats, 
with  Turkish  shepherds,  and  another  flock  tended  by 
Bulgarian  boys,  who  looked  like  young  Calmucks. 
At  9  A.M.  we  passed  a  rude  chiftlik,  belonging  to 
Achmet  Bey,  where  six  Turks  were  lying  under  trees 
and  smoking  pipe.  There  were  a  few  large  corn- 
fields, and  one  extensive  field  under  flax.     The  scenery 


—  ^.-^T-i^.  ...^.       ...i^.    ^^  I    I      I  I,        ~  r  mmii-MJiPi       |-         ,it-       ,„,    -,^.      ^ 


Chap.  XXVlll.        MU8SULMANIZED  GIPSIES.  505 

round  about  was  wooded  and  pretty,  the  trees  being 
chiefly  small  oaks.  At  10  we  dismounted  at  a 
chifllik  called  Khadjak,  also  belonging  to  Achmet  Bey, 
who  held  seven  enormous  farms  in  these  parts.  We 
were  hospitably  entertained  on  brown  bread,  yaourt, 
sheep  cheese,  and  coffee  by  the  people  of  the  chiftlik, 
who  were  all  Mussulmanized  gipsies.  They  would  not 
accept  money,  and  they  pressed  us  to  stop  and  pass  the 
day  and  night  with  them.  Yet  if  three  or  four  of  these 
fellows,  with  guns  in  their  hands,  had  met  us  away 
from  the  farm,  in  a  convenient  place,  they  might  have 
said  ^^  Stand  and  deliver ;"  or  they  might  have  knocked 
us  off  our  horses  without  any  speech.  Arab  hospitality  I 
Arab  manners  I  After  eating  with  them  we  were  safe 
and  sacred. 

Such  are  the  customs  of  the  Tchinganei  in  Boumelia. 
While  we  stayed  with  them  they  shot  at  a  mark,  with 
crazy  guns  and  very  bad  powder.  The  target  was  the 
bare  bright  skull  of  an  ox,  but  though  firing  not  with 
bullets,  but  with  shot,  they  hardly  ever  hit  it.  We 
thought  of  Tchelebee  John's  calculations :  it  was  a  great 
comfort  to  think  of  them  now  and  then  in  wild  places, 
and  when  bestriding  horses  incapable  of  canter  or  gal- 
lop. If  attacked  we  must  have  stood  to  it ;  to  run 
away  with  such  beasts  was  out  of  the  question. 

We  remounted  at  II  a.m.  At  12.35  we  pulled  up 
for  a  few  minutes  by  a  fountain,  under  a  miserable 
'^  wee  bit "  Turkish  village  called  Tchanghirli.  It  had 
the  queerest  little  mosque,  with  an  umbrella-headed 
minaret,  all  built  of  wood.  We  saw  no  living  creature 
except  some  storks,  who  had  built  five  nests  on  a 
blighted  tree  by  the  fountain.     They  saluted  us  by 


506  TURKEY  AND  IT8  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVill. 

clacking  their  long  bills,  and  were  not  in  the  least  dis- 
composed by  our  company.  Round  this  village  there 
were  some  lai^e  patches  of  corn  and  flax.  Then,  as 
before  and  after,  was  a  green,  undulating,  apparently 
interminable  wilderness.  We  met  not  a  soul  upon  the 
road — which  was  no  road  at  all,  but  only  a  track,  or 
ramification  of  tracks,  where  you  chose  your  line  ac- 
cording to  the  season  or  your  own  caprice*  While 
fording  a  stream  which  was  deep  even  now,  our  drogo- 
man  narrowly  escaped  a  good  ducking,  and  our  suridjee 
discovered  that  he  had  lost  his  way.  After  another 
detour,  and  passing  two  large  farm-houses  (both  in 
ruins  and  apparently  deserted),  we  reached  the  very 
small  Turkish  hamlet  of  Oklarleui,  on  a  broad  swift 
stream,  called  by  the  Turks  Erghene.  Here  was  a 
water-mill,  and  a  rude  and  perilous  wooden  bridge. 
At  6  P.M.  we  reached  Bulgar-keui,  a  Bulgarian  village 
with  only  a  few  Greeks  in  it  Tired  with  the  wretched 
pace  of  the  horses,  and  seeing  a  storm  a-head,  we  would 
ha^'e  stopped  to  sleep  here  ^  but  the  suridjee,  alarmed 
at  the  proposition,  said  that  we  might  get  our  throats 
cut  in  the  night,  and  so  we  rode  on.  Before  us  was  a 
wall  of  black  clouds,  split  by  forked  lightning*  We 
were  presently  under  a  heavy  fall  of  rain,  which  soaked 
us  to  the  skin,  and  which  continued  during  the  rest  of 
the  evening.  At  7  p.m.  we  crossed  a  long  stone  bridge, 
and  dismounted  at  the  new  khan  of  Baba-'Eskissi.  We 
had  been  twelve  hours  in  the  saddle ;  yet  I  doubt  whe- 
ther we  bad  ridden  forty  English  miles.  We  were  now 
on  what  is  termed  the  high  Adrianople  road. 

This  new  khan  had  been   built  by  the  Armenian 
^peculators  in  diligences  as  a  place  of  refiige  and  rest 


Chap.  XXVIII.      PICTUBESQUE  STONE  BRIDGE.  507 

for  their  passengers.  It  was  a  miserable  wooden  struc- 
ture, with  dirty,  unswept  sleeping-rooms  running  round 
an  open  gallery,  and  offering  no  accommodation  beyond 
a  little  straw  matting.  The  floor  of  our  room  was  al- 
leady  dotted  and  blackened  with  the  pieces  of  ignited 
charcoal  which  had  dropped  from  the  pipe-bowls  of 
careless  smokers.  Down  stairs,  in  an  angle  of  the 
buiMing,  there  was  a  cafe,  with  a  little  fire  burning  on 
a  hearth,  and  here  we  contrived  to  dry  our  clothes. 
Yorghi  went  foraging  in  the  tcharshy,  and  returned 
with  a  smoking  pilafl^  yaourt,  black  olives,  sardellas^ 
and  gritty  bread  h  discretion. 

In  the  morning  we  were  up  by  daylight,  and  glad  to 
rush  out  of  this  foul-smelling  khan  into  the  open  air. 
We  walked  to  the  side  of  the  river,  and  to  the  bridge 
which  we  had  crossed  yesterday  evening  in  the  dusk. 
Swollen  by  the  rains,  the  river  was  flowing  with  a 
copious  stream  to  the  east;  but  it  still  left  several 
arches  of  the  long  bridge  quite  dry.  At  certain  seasons 
the  river  is  liable  to  sudden  and  great  swells:  the  only 
name  the  country  people  had  for  it  was  the  water  of 
Kirk  Klissia,  from  which  town  it  descends ;  below  the 
bridge^  and  a  little  beyond  Babk-Eskissi,  it  turns  to  the 
aoath-west,  and  has  for  some  distance  a  pretty  appear- 
ance,, its  banks  being  fringed  mtk  trees  and  underwood. 
The  stone  bridge — the  like  of  which  we  never  saw  in 
Turkey — ^was  graceful,  picturesque,  and  even  beautiful 
as  a  specimen  of  that  kind  of  architecture.  Its  rise  and 
fall  were  very  gradual  and  inconsiderable :  it  was  indeed 
almost  a  flat  bridge.  It  had  seven  arrow-headed  arches, 
with  small  arches  in  pairs  between;  and  beyond  the 
great  arches  on  either  side  were  small  arches  fantas- 


508  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIII. 

tically  shaped.  There  was  the  irregularity  of  Gothic 
architecture  with  the  harmony  we  find  in  the  best 
Gothic  buildings.  Not  that  the  bridge  was  Gothic — 
the  style  was  sui  generis.  Over  the  keystone  of  each  of 
the  arches  was  a  very  pretty  medallion,  boldly  cut  in 
good  hard  stone  or  marble.  The  parapets  of  the  bridge 
were  composed  of  large  solid  blocks  or  slabs  about  four 
feet  high,  and  well  put  together  without  any  cement 
In  the  middle  of  the  bridge  there  was  a  beautiful  pro- 
jecting balcony  of  open,  carved  stone,  facing  which, 
on  the  vopposite  side  of  the  bridge,  was  a  tall  screen,  with 
a  long  Turkish  inscription  cut  on  a  marble  slab.  In 
every  part  the  masonry  was  excellent  The  water- 
cutting  buttresses  which  faced  the  current  (often  tre- 
mendous) were  well  conceived,  and  appeared  to  have 
sustained  no  injury  from  the  floods  of  many  winters. 
Unhappily  the  roadway  part  of  the  bridge  showed  some 
signs  of  that  wanton,  inconceivable,  worse  than  brutish 
spirit  of  destruction  which  pervades  all  Turkey.  If 
people  would  throw  off  conventionalities  and  rote-opi- 
nions in  taste,  I  believe  it  would  be  pretty  generally 
confessed  that  the  best  of  our  modern  bridges  are  some- 
what mechanical,  tame,  and  monotonous.  Here  was  a 
bridge  eminently  picturesque  and  novel,  and  without 
discernible  defect  in  its  engineering.  It  was  vain  to 
inquire  here  when  it  was  built,  or  who  was  its  architect 
From  certain  indications  I  conjectured  that  the  direct- 
ing genius  had  been  a  Venetian.  Between  the  bridge 
end  and  the  town  there  was  a  fine  Turkish  mosque, 
almost  covered  with  storks'  nests,  and  the  ruins  of  a 
Greek  church  which  had  been  entirely  built  of  brick. 
There  was  another  mosque  in  the  main  street,  and  also 


Chap.  XXVIII.  BABA-ESKISSI.  509 

a  Greek  church,  but  this  mosque  was  small  and  mean. 
Fococke,  who  passed  this  way  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  who  was  much  struck  by  the  beauty  of 
the  bridge,  says  that  the  town  occupies  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Burtudizum  (?).  It  now  consists  of  about 
300  houses,  the  majority  being  Greek.  Returning  to 
the  khan  and  cafinet,  we  were  told  more  stories  of  rob- 
beries and  murders,  all  said  to  be  perpetrated  by  Bul- 
garians. The  other  day  a  boy  was  carried  off  from  an 
Albanian  village  a  little  to  the  west  to  be  kept  for  ran- 
som. In  the  coffee-house  our  companions  were  an  old 
Greek  merchant,  enormously  fat,  and  said  to  be  rich, 
who  was  travelling  with  two  Albanians,  armed  to  the 
teeth,  for  an  escort,  a  fat,  good-natured  Turkish 
butcher,  and  two  zaptias,  or  police  guards,  who  had 
been  sent  down  from  Adrianople  to  look  after  the 
thieves.  These  last-named  members  of  the  police  had 
been  taking  their  ease  at  their  inn,  and  had  been  drink- 
ing raki  this  morning ;  for,  early  as  it  was,  one  of  them 
was  already  muzzy. 

We  mounted  our  horses  at  6  a.m.  In  the  town  we 
passed  a  fine  Turkish  bath  in  ruins,  a9  also  the  ruins  of 
a  medresseh.  On  the  other  side  of  the  street  some 
Greeks  were  building  two  or  three  wooden  houses. 
Just  beyond  Babk-Eskissi  we  rode  under  a  fine  large 
tumulus,  which  we  had  seen  from  afar  yesterday  even- 
ing. Two  other  tumuli  were  in  sight,  at  a  distance  to 
the  S.E.  At  half  a  mile  from  the  little  town,  the 
scanty  cultivation  ceased ;  and  then  we  rode  over  bare 
downs,  not  unlike  the  higher  downs  of  Sussex,  but  far 
more  solitary,  and  covered  with  far  better  soil.  When 
people  talk  of  the  flat  plain  of  Thrace  between  Adria- 


510  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      CnAP.  XXVIII. 

nople  and  Constantinople,  they  talk  sheer  nonsense.  In 
the  Mfhole  distance  there  is  very  little  level  ground* 
Now,  and  on  our  return*  when  we  rode  almost  to  the 
walls  of  Stamboul,  we  were  constantly  ascending  or 
descending.  Some  of  the  ridges  were  almost  lofty 
enough  to  be  called  mountains  in  England ;  several  of 
the  descents  were  steep,  rugged,  and  rather  perilous, 
the  ground  having  been  rendered  slippery  by  last  night's 
rain.  How  the  diligences  had  ever  got  over  these 
roads  was  to  us  a  riddle.  Nothing  whatever  had  been 
d6ne  to  repair  or  smootiien  the  horrible  track.  Only 
in  some  of  the  deep  hollows,  traversed  by  streams,  they 
had  repaired  a  rickety  wooden  bridge,  c^  made  a  new 
wooden  bridge.  At  9.15  a.m.  we  halted  at  EulillL 
We  asked  a  Turk  how  many  houses  there  were  in  this 
little  village:  though  born  and  bred  in  the  place  he 
could  not  tell ;  he  had  never  thought  about  it  An- 
other Turk  said  that  there  might  be  about  forty  houses. 
A  Greek,  who  kept  a  backal's  shop,  said  there  were 
twenty-five  houses,  some  Turkish,  some  Greek.  There 
were  two  khans  in  the  place,  an  old  one,  and  one  quite 
new  built  by  the  diligent  speculators.  Sultan  Abdul 
Medjid,  on  his  way  to  Adrianople  in  1846,  passed 
through  this  village,  and  rested  and  encamped  in  the 
open  country  just  beyond  it.  While  we  were  sitting  in 
the  sun,  outside  the  old  khan,  a  Bulgarian  shepherd 
passed  by  with  the  classical  pastoral  crook  in  his  hand. 
The  last  time  I  had  noticed  this  crook  was  four  years 
ago  at  Penshurst,  in  dear  old  Kent. 

We  remounted  at  10  a.m.  The  country  now  rose 
to  a  very  lofty  ridge,  which  would  deserve,  anywhere, 
the   name  of  mountain.     At  the   top   there  was    a 


Chap.  XXVIII.  KHAV8A.  511 

broad  bare  heathy  and  here  a  great  caravan  of  fierce- 
looking  Mussulman  Albanians  were  reposing ;  their 
horses  and  asses  turned  loose  and  grazing  round  them. 
They  were  on  their  way  from  Constantinople  to  their 
own  mountainous  regions.  For  miles  and  miles  the 
ground  had  scarcely  been  scratched.  Their  natural 
fertility  was  evident  enough,  but  the  lands  were  utterly 
solitary  and  neglected.  With  the  aid  of  a  judicious 
plantation — for  the  country  is  totally  void  of  trees,  and 
gets  burned  up  in  the  hot  months  of  the  year — there 
might  be  here  some  of  the  finest  corn  farms  in  the 
world.  Over  the  limestone  beds  there  was  a  rich  soil 
four  feet  to  five  feet  deep.  At  mid-day  prayer  we 
crossed  a  clear  little  stream  by  a  low  rude  stone  bridge 
without  any  parapets,  and  rode  into  the  village  or 
small  diminished  town  of  Khavsa,  passing  under  three 
Moresque  arches,  with  a  stately  mosque  on  one  hand, 
and  the  ruins  of  a  splendid  khan  on  the  other.  At  the 
cafinet  where  we  alighted,  we  asked  an  old  Turkish 
notable,  an  Efiendi  in  long  robes  and  turban,  who  built 
the  khan  and  the  mosque  ?  He  replied,  the  Vizier 
Ibrahim-Khan-Oglou-Mehemet-Pasha,  .  who  also  built 
the  fair  bridge  at  Babk-Eskissi.  How  long  ago  ?  The 
old  Turk  stroked  his  beard  and  said,  ^^  about  500 
years !''  Hardly  a  man  among  these  people  has  the 
slightest  idea  of  chronology,  or  of  the  history  of  the 
edifices  among  which  his  whole  life  may  have  been 
passed.  They  have  no  books,  and  hardly  ever  any 
taste  for  antiquities,  or  any  curiosity  about  the  past. 

We  walked  back  to  the  mosque  and  khan.  There 
was  a  pleasant  courtyard  behind  the  mosque  with  trees 
and  tombs,  a  schoolroom  and  a  fountain  with  a  Chinese 


j 


'm^m 


512  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVIII. 

or  umbrella  top.  But  everything  was  neglected,  soiled, 
broken,  and  gone,  or  fast  going  to  irretrievable  ruin. 
1'here  was  a  Tourbe,  or  Mausoleum,  built  to  contain 
the  mortal  remains  of  some  of  the  kindred  of  the 
founder  of  the  mosque,  of  men  who  had  been  great  in 
their  day,  and  benefactors  to  this  town :  it  was  in  a 
shameful  state — ^turned  into  a  lumber-room.  The  walls 
of  the  mosque  were  cracked ;  a  whole  host  of  storks  had 
colonized  the  roofe  and  were  destroying  the  graceful 
cupolas.  In  the  street,  close  to  the  great  mosque,  was 
a  smaller  one  with  a  singularly  ornamented  minaret ; 
and  this  too  was  dirty  and  neglected.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  street  the  ruins  of  the  great  khan  were  very 
extensive,  that  which  remained  showing  that  the  build- 
ings must  have  been  solid  and  in  very  good  taste.  The 
few  architectural  ornaments  that  were  not  carried  off  or 
broken,  the  medallions,  rosettes,  &c.,  were  in  the  same 
style  as  those  of  the  bridge  at  Baba-Eskissi.  The  three 
Moresque  arches,  which  spanned  the  street,  had  con- 
nected the  house  of  hospitality  with  the  house  of  prayer, 
and  through  them  was  the  only  entrance  (on  this  side) 
to  the  town.  Coming  from  Constantinople  the  traveller 
had  the  mosque  on  his  right  hand,  and  the  khan  on  his 
left,  the  two  buildings  being  only  a  few  feet  apart  A 
range  of  lodging-rooms,  nicely  separated  by  stone  walls, 
and  each  having  its  fireplace,  now  lies  open  to  the 
street,  the  fronts  having  been  knocked  in.  Behind  this 
range  the  khan  expands  into  four  spacious,  open  courts, 
on  the  four  sides  of  which  there  had  once  been  admir- 
able stables,  and  comfortable,  and  even  elegant,  lodging- 
rooms:  but  stables  and  rooms  had  almost  entirely 
disappeared,  little  remaining  but  the  strong  enclosing 


■  h     il.  >— WiJWJWII— ^^—^^■^■^IP^W^B^— i^MpW—W^WW 


Chap.  XXVm.  KHAVSl.  513 

walls.  In  one  of  the  courts  there  was  the  marble  base 
of  a  fountain;  but  the  fountain  itself  was  gone — the 
Turks  bad  cut  up  the  material  into  tombstones.  With- 
in these  solid  stone  walls,  in  an  angle  of  one  of  the  fine 
spacious  courts,  a  Turk  had  run  up  a  small  house  of 
lath  and  mud,  which  was  partly  fastened  to  the  walls 
like  a  martin's  nest,  and  which  in  part  rested  upon  long 
poles  stuck  in  the  ground;  but  notwithstanding  its' 
double  support,  most  of  the  hovel  had  fisdlen  down.  It 
was  not  with  an  exulting  smile  that  the  man  owned 
his  crib:  the  poor  fellow  seemed  to  be  conscious  of 
shame  and  of  the  force  of  contrast ;  he  knew  that  Mus- 
sulmans had  built  those  stately  walls,  had  laid  out  those 
beautifxil  courts,  and  had  dwelt  there  and  had  enter- 
tained the  stranger  within  the  gates,  in  bygone  times. 
Just  above  these  splendid  enclosures  was  another  Tourbe 
in  a  more  ruinous,  degraded  condition  even  than  the 
one  which  stood  by  the  great  mosque.  The  town 
counted  about  100  miserable  Turkish  houses,  and  about 
40  Greek  hovels.  A  few  gardens  and  some  strips  of 
cultivation  lay  round  the  place,  and  then — the  green 
desert. 

We  were  in  our  saddles  at  12.45  p.m.  In  half  an 
hour  we  came  to  a  wooden  bridge  with  the  remains  of 
an  old  solid  stone  bridge  close  to  it.  This,  as  a  French 
traveUer  has  observed,  is  the  history  of  Turkish  repara- 
tions I  They  mend  an  ancient  bridge  with  poles  and 
planks,  or  they  supply  its  place  with  a  new  and  firail 
wooden  bridge.  As  the  water  now  was  not  above  the 
saddle  girths,  we  waded  through  the  stream,  as  tra- 
vellers always  do  when  they  can,  preferring  the  water 
to  crossing  the  ill-constructed  bridges.    At  2  p.m.  we 

VOL.  n.  2  L 


^14  TURKEY  AND  PTB  DESTINY.      Oha*.  XXVUI. 

saw  a  small  Tillage  away  to  the  right,  but  we  could 
discover  no  people  in  the  fields,  and  we  scarcely  met 
a  traveller  on  our  desolate  track.  At  3,  from  a 
rugged,  sandy  ridge  we  obtained  the  first  view  of 
Adrianople,  its  grand  mosqite  with  its  four  lofty  white 
minarets  on  a  hill  showing  well  out  against  a  dark  blue 
sky.  At  3.35  p.m.  we  came  in  view  of  the  Hebrus, 
a  broad  and  shining  river,  gliding  through  a  beautiful 
plain.  More  suddenly  than  yestaxlay  evening  the 
weather  was  overcast ;  the  blue  sky  became  of  a  heavy, 
leaden  colour,  black  clouds  rolled  across  it,  and  after  a 
few  distant  thunder-claps,  the  rain  fell  heavily. 

We  now  came  out  from  the  hills  upon  a  dead  flat, 
broad  and  sandy,  with  a  bit  of  most  slovenly,  tnost 
rugged  stone  causeway,  here  and  there,  to  render  it 
passable  in  the  wet  season.  And  this  is  the  high  road 
from  the  capital  to  the  second  city  in  European  Turkey 
— this  is  the  approach  to  the  Adrianople  terminus !  In 
some  parts  the  causeway  was  little  better  than  that 
which  had  led  us  to  the  Sabanjah  Lake.  Now  we  met 
a  great  troop  of  Bulgarians  on  their  way  to  the  chiftliks 
near  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  Like  all  of  their  race  ihst 
we  had  seen,  they  were  rough,  uncouth  men,  with  a 
look  of  mingled  stupidity  and  ferocity.  Our  Armeaiian 
suridjee  said  that  more  robberies  would  soon  be  heard 
of  down  the  country.  We  had  now  extensive  mulberry 
plantations  on  either  side  of  us,  and  some  few  vineyards. 
Farther  on  we  passed  a  number  of  detadhed  Tiirldi^ 
tombstones,  and  then  came  to  a  ^great  crowded  Turkic 
cemetery,  by  which  we  entered  Adrianople,  wet  nad 
weary,  at  5  p.m.  Our  suridjee,  «gain  losing  his  way, 
took  us  on  a  wild  scrambling  ride  through  tibe  town. 


{)nAf,  JXVJJL      ADBIANOPLB— THE  HBBRUS.  815 

up  hill  and  down,  tiirough  lanes  and  horrible  alleys. 
At  last  we  reached  a  broad  open  street  entirely  occupied 
by  tailors  and  menders  of  clothes ;  and  here  we  got  a 
Greek  guide  to  show  us  the  street  or  lane  in  which  the 
respectable  Franks  lived.  On  reaching  that  quarter 
we  found  Aat  the  English  consul  and  all  the  respecta- 
bilities had  removed  for  the  spring  and  summer  to  Kara* 
Atch,  a  village  on  the  other  side  of  the  HebruSy  at 
about  an  hour's  ride  from  the  city.  As  there  was  not 
an  inn  in  all  Adrianople,  we  had  nothing  for  it  but  to 
ride  on,  wet  and  dirty  as  we  were.  The  streets  were 
steep,  horribly  ill-paved,  muddy  and  slippery,  and  our 
horses  were  weary  and  stupid.  In  a  v^  precipitous 
lane  we  dismounted.  We  could  scarcely  keep  our  legs 
on  the  slippery  pavement  We  were  soon  obliged  to 
mount  again  in  order  to  cross  a  long,  fearful  deposit  of 
muck,  slush,  and  every  abomination,  as  black  as  Styjc, 
and  S8  offensive  to  the  nostril  as  Dante's  worst  pit  of 
stinks.  The  filth  reached  the  horses'  knees ;  and  where 
it  was  deepest  and  thickest  my  jaded  brute  nearly  rolled 
over  on  his  side.  We  emerged  from  Adrianople  as  we 
had  entered  it,  by  riding  through  a  great,  crowded 
Turkish  burying-grouud,  the  tombstones,  here  as  there, 
neglected,  vilely  treated,  broken,  upset  or  driven  aslant 
— ^all  save  a  very  few  which  glittered  witii  gilded  inscrip- 
tions ,and  were  quite  new. 

Traversing  an  irregular  suburb  we  crossed  the 
Tounja  river  by  a  short  stone  bridge,  and  about  200 
yards  farther  on  we  began  to  cross  the  Hebrus  by  a 
long  stone  bridge.  At  this  season  the  bed  of  the 
classical  river  was  pretty  well  filled  up,  and  the  scenery 
on  either  side  of  the  bridge  :wias  uncommonly  cool  and 

2l2 


516  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.      Chap.  XXVlil. 

pleasant,  as  the  rain-clouds  dispersed  and  the  declining 
sun  shone  out  on  the  refreshed  vegetation.     Tall  poplars 
and  other  trees  stood  along  the  banks.     The  scenery 
reminded  me  of  some  parts  of  the  not  less  classical  river 
Po.     A  ra^ed  Greek  we  had  picked  up  at  Adrianople 
to  guide  us  to  the  village,  had  been  keeping  St.  Geoi^e*s 
day;  he  was  more  than  three  parts  drunk  and  very 
frolicsome  and  talkative.     He  walked  so  fast  over  the 
rough  sandy  road  that  we  had  much  difficulty  in  keep- 
ing our  dull  horses  up  with  him.     He  had  a  ready 
answer  or  a  joke  for  every  query,  and  the  raid  which 
had  sharpened  his  wit  had  also  raised  his  courage.     I 
complained  of  the  roads.     "  Ah/'  said  he,  **  they  will 
be  better  when  the  Muscovites  come  and  take  possession, 
or  when  the  Hellenes  shall  be  masters  hereP    In  a 
green  shady  lane  between  mulberry  plantations,  we  met 
the  great  Mollah  of  Adrianople  on  horseback,  followed 
by  his  pipe-bearer  and  five  or  six  other  attendants :  he 
was  dressed  in  flowing  Oriental  robes ;  his  turban  very 
broad  and  snow-white,  his  face  sallow  and  sour;  he 
scarcely  deigned  to  return   my  salute.     Moving  on 
another  line  of  road  or  ti*ack  was  the  Pasha  of  Adrian- 
ople himself,  accompanied  by  a  very  numerous  and 
somewhat    noisy  retinue.      Son    Excellence  with    his 
Kehayah,  or  Teflerdar,  and  all  the  male  part  of  his 
household,  had  been  making  keff  at  Eara-Atch.     In  the 
morning  he  had  sent  out  to  the  house  of  a  Frank  in  the 
village  an  abundant  ready-dressed  dinner,  and  the  best 
part  of  a  case  of  champagne ;  and  he  and  his  people, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  few  Franks,  had  finished  every 
drop  of  the  champagne  and  had  swallowed  a  good  deal 
of  country  wine  and   raki   into    the    bai^ain.     The 


J 


Chap.  XXVm.      HOSPITALITY  AT  KAKA-ATCH.  517 

Mollah  had  been  of  the  party,  but  had  not  joined  the 
drinking  bout,  never  drinking  ^  ^ine  in  public,  but  (so  it 
was  said)  drinking  more  than  any  of  them  in  private. 

At  6  PJtf.  we  dismounted  at  the  door  of  Mr.  Edward 
Schnell,  the  brother  of  an  old  Smyrna  friend,  and  the 
near  connexion  of  many  with  whom  I  had  been  intimate 
in  that  city  twenty  years  ago.  That  brother  was  dead, 
but  two  of  his  sons  were  living  here  with  their  uncle. 
They  all  descended  from  a  good  Hanoverian  stock, 
which  had  been  settled  for  several  generations  in  the 
Levant,  enjoying  (of  course)  British  protection  and 
being  almost  English  by  intermarriages.  Mr.  E.  S. 
was  about  the  best  remaining  specimen  of  the  old, 
respectable  Smyrniote  Franks  who  have  been  almost 
driven  out  of  the  field  by  Greeks  and  Armenians.  He 
had  been  settled  some  two  and  twenty  years  in  this  part 
of  European  Turkey,  and  he  had  married  a  Frank  lady 
of  Adrianople,  the  daughter  of  a  former  consul.  For 
eight  days  these  hospitable,  thoroughly  amiable  people 
made  their  house  our  home ;  and  we  enjoyed  at  this 
village  of  Kara-Atch,  by  tihe  bank  of  the  Hebrus,  far 
more  comfort  than  we  had  ever  known  in  European 
Turkey.  Mr.  W.  Willshire,  our  consul,  and  his  family 
occupied  a  villa  on  the  other  side  of  the  way. 


519  TURKSY  AJXD  ITS  DKniBT.         Our.  XXIX, 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Adriftnople  —  Visit  to  the  Pbsha  —  His  fiarem  —  Turkish  Ladies  — 
FoMOnings  —  The  Torldsh  Ink  Yander  and  his  Fonr  Wives  —  Delhi 
Mustapha  and  hia  Thirty-second  Wife  —  The  Pasha's  Prison  —  The 
Pasha's  Black  Executioner  —  End  of  Papas  LoUio  the  Priest-Robber  — 
Frequent  Executions  —  Adulations  of  French  Journalists  —  Bad  State 
oi  the  Troops  —  Dishonesty  of  Offioera  -^  The  Eski  Send  or  Old  Palace 
of  Adrianople  — >  Ruins !  Ruins  1  —  Surrender  of  Adrianople  to  th« 
Russians  in  1829  —  Turkish  Indifference  —  Excellent  Russian  Disdplina 
—  Grand  Mosque  of  Sultan  Selim  —  More  Destruction  —  Decay  of 
Religion  among  the  Turks  ^-  College  in  Ruins  —  Moeque  of  Sultan 
Mnrad  -^  More  Ruins  —  Khans  destroyed  —  Pc^laticm  —  KaTigatioii 
of  the  Hebrus  —  Turkish  Engineering  —  Engineering  Plans  of  M. 
Poirel  —  Another  English  Victim  to  Malaria  —  Toll  levied  on  the 
River  —  The  Rafts  on  the  Hebrus  —  M.  Blanqui  —  New  Bridge  •— 
Kiosk  for  the  Sultan  —  Mulberry  Plantations  at  Eaia-Atch  —  ThA 
Silk  Trade  —  Vineyards  and  Good  Wine  —  State  of  Agriculture  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Hebrus  —  Decline  of  the  Turkish  Population  —  Trading 
Town  of  Eishan  —  Pleasant  Frank  Colony  at  Eara-Atch  —  Mr. 
Willshire,  our  Adrian(^le  Consul,  and  his  Family  —  The  Grave  of  Mr. 
John  Kerr  -»-  Life  at  Adrianople  in  the  Winter  Season  —  Inclement 
Climate  —  Sad  Effects  of  Frost  —  Lady  Mary  W.  Montagu  —  Bulga- 
rian Fann-Labourers  —  Turkish  Oppression  and  Insurrection  of  Ae 
Bulgarians  in  1840-1  ^  Frightful  Massacres  of  the  Christiana -*  MSaaion 
of  M.  Blanqui  —  Antipathies  between  the  Bulgarians  and  Greeks  — 
Tendency  of  the  Bulgarians  to  a  Union  with  Russia  or  Austria. 

Our  first  visit  in  Adrianople  was  to  the  champagne- 
drinking  Pasha.  His  konack,  on  a  broad,  fiat  hill  at  the 
top  of  the  town,  though  only  of  wood,  had  rather  an 
imposing  appearance  firom  without, — that  is,  if  you 
looked  only  at  the  front,  which  was  green  and  smart 
and  regular.  But,  within,  that  big  house  was  scrambling, 
dirty,  comfortless,  lop-sided,  shaky,  and,  in  this  month 


I  t         ttm^^-^mmmtmi^^r^mmimfmKmms^ 


Chab.  XXIX  FASBA  OF  ADBIikNOFLB.  519 

of  May,  exceedingly  cold,  the  wind  blowing  through 
and  through  it*  The  long;  dusky  corridors  were 
crowded  with  lazy,  ragged,  ilMooking  retainers.  Of 
zaptias  alone  this  Pasha  had  140  \  his  grooms^  piper 
bearers,  cooks,  and  coffee-makers^  running  footmea,  aiid 
the  like^  swelled  his  household  to  a  prodigious  extent 
While  the  country  all  round  was  languishing  for  want 
of  hands  to  till  the  soiV  there  were  from  200  to  300 
Turks  living  about  the  konaek  in  a  state  of  idleness  and 
utter  uselessness.  As  they  get  hardly  any  pay,  they 
must  live  by  baekshish  and  by  oppressing  and  robbing 
the  people,  Bustem  Pasha  gave  us  but  a  cold  welcome 
in  a  very  chilly  room,  the  ill-fitting  glared  window-* 
frames  of  which  were  shaking  and  rattling  in  a  gale 
from  the  N.W.,  which  came  down  from  the  snow- 
eovered  summits  of  Bhodope  and  Hsemus.  He  was 
wrapped  up  in  a  coat  lined  with  furs ;  but,  as  we  had 
thrown  ofi^  our  top-coats  before  entering  his  august  pre* 
sence,  we  shivered  till  our  teeth  almost  chattered.  He 
was  a  man  of  a  coarse  and  vulgar  appearance,  with 
manners  corresponding.  However  merry  he  might 
have  been  with  his  last  Saturday's  champagne,  he  was 
dull  and  heavy  enough  this  Monday  morning.  He 
told  us  that  if  we  wanted  anything  we  might  apply  to 
his  Frank  drogoman  and  secretary.  The  only  anxiety 
Rustem  showed  was  to  know  from  me  whether  people 
^t  Constantinople  did  not  think  that  Reschid  Pasha 
would  be  restored  to  power  so  soon  as  Sir  Stratford 
Canning  should  return.  I  assured  him  that  such  was 
the  general  opimon ;  but  whether  this  gave  him  plea- 
sure pr  p^iiQ  I  could  Bot  discover.  We  swallowed  our 
wtke  and  speedily  took  our  ^parture. 


520  TURKEY  AND  rrs  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

This  man,  who  was  so  very  lax  in  other  essentials, 
was  a  severe  observer  of  Turkish  law  or  usage  with 
regard  to  women.  He  hardly  ever  allowed  his  females 
to  quit  the  harem.  Once  a-week  these  caged  birds 
were  permitted  to  go  to  the  windows  that  looked  into  a 
back  street ;  but  then  two  cavasses  were  placed  under 
the  windows  to  take  good  care  that  no  man  stopped  to 
look  up  at  them.  He  had  brought  three  wives  with 
him  to  Adrianople,  and  had  recently  taken  to  himself  a 
fourth.  From  some  of  the  Frank  ladies  at  Kara-Atch, 
who  occasionally  visited  the  harems  of  the  great,  and 
received  in  their  own  houses  the  visits  of  Turkish  ladies, 
I  heard  many  curious  details  of  domestic  life,  which, 
being  trtie^  and  in  plain  prose^  bore  but  little  resem- 
blance to  the  fancy  pictures  drawn  by  Miss  Pardee  and 
certain  other  travellers.  The  Turkish  women — sans 
moyena  et  sans  ressources — ^were  slaves  of  ennui,  or  only 
excited  by  the  violent  passions  of  jealousy  and  hatred : 
they  were  almost  incessantly  quarrelling  with  one 
another,  or  with  their  lords  and  masters :  the  poor  man 
that  had  but  one  wife  had  a  chance  of  peace  within 
doors,  the  rich  man  who  had  two  or  more  wives  had 
none.  Some  of  these  Turkish  ladies  were  very  plain  in 
their  speech.     The   other  day  one  of  them  said  to 

Madame ^  "  Indeed,  I  am  quite  weary  of  being  as 

I  am.  I  am  sick  of  that  brute,  my  husband,  and  I  very 
much  want  to  poison  him !"  From  the  stories  we  heard 
here  and  elsewhere,  poisonings  must  be  rather  common 
domestic  occurrences.  The  hags^who  deal  in  abortion 
are  said  to  be  skilled  in  this  art  also.  There  are 
Turkish  To&nas  and  Brinvilliers.  The  tiling  is  so 
easy  to  do,  or  it  may  so  easily  pass  off  unnoticed,  jDO^f 


^^^^wfc^iiSJ^ 


Chap.  XXIX.      HURRIED  INTERMENTS— POLYGAMY.  521 

mortem  examinations  being  unknown^  and  bodies  being 
hurried  to  the  grave  almost  as  soon  as  dead.  This  is 
the  practice  among  all  classes.  Lately  at  Fivades  the 
Greeks  had  buried  a  poor  woman  alive ;  and  at  Brusa, 
while  the  cholera  was  raging,  there  were  several  such 
interments,  or  cases  where  the  poor  people  recovered 
sense  or  motion  as  they  were  being  jolted  to  the  grave. 
But  the  Mussulmans  are  in  the  greateist  hurry  of  all : 
so  soon  as  the  breath  ceases,  they  give  a  slight  washing 
to  the  body,  and  then  make  a  race  with  it  to  the 
cemetery. 

Polygamy  was  far  from  being  so  very  much  out 
of  fashion  as  I  had  been  told.  Of  the  great  pashas  who 
had  only  one  wife  a-piece,  most  were  married  to  free 
Turkish  women,  connected  with  rich  and  powerful 
families.  But  those  who  bought  their  wives  and  women, 
generally  purchased  three  or  four  a-piece.  In  all  times 
the  poor  man  had  been  obliged  to  rest  satisfied  with  one 
wife.  Tet  here  occasional  exceptions  are  found.  We 
had  an  acquaintance  at  Fera  who  had  filled  up  the 
lawful  number  of  four.  Old  Murekebjee  got  his  living 
by  selling  Turkish  ink,  which  he  hawked  about  the  city 
of  Constantinople,  Scutari,  Fera,  Galata,  and  Tophana, 
and  the  large  villages  up  the  Bosphorus.  He  would  be 
for  three  or  four  days  in  one  place,  and  three  or  four  days 
in  another ;  and,  although  his  whole  circuit  was  limited, 
he  was  always  moving  about  He  had  a  wife  in  Stam- 
boul,  another  over  in  Asia  at  Scutari,  another  at  Tophana, 
and  another  up  the  Bosphorus,  so  that,  go  where  he 
would,  he — like  the  wandering  friend  of  "  Anastasius*' — 
always  slept  at  home  at  night,  and  had  a  spouse  at  hand 
to  cook  his  pilaff.    One  day,  when  he  was  asked  how, 


2^23  TUBKEY  AKD  fK  PBSTINT.         QoA^.  2XIX 

with  such  a  very  little  trade,  he  could  keep  so  many 
wives,  the  grey-beard  replied — ^^  Mashallah  I  I  am  but 
a  poor  little  man,  but  God  is  great  I  I  am  always  with 
one  wife  or  the  other :  when  I  go  home  to  one,  I  take 
Qiy  dinner  and  something  mora  wiih  me;  and  iOfne 
paras  are  not  wanting :  eaeh  of  my  other  wives  is  at  the 
same  time  sure  of  her  lodging,  her  loaf  of  bread,  and 
(in  winter  time)  her  candle :  in  each  of  the  four  quar* 
ters  where  my  wives  live  I  have  credit  with  a  baekal, 
who  iiirnishes  a  loaf  and  a  candle  daily ;  as  I  go  my 
rounds  I  pay  the  backals  in  turn,  so  that  the  credit  ia 
always  good.  Inshallah  I  I  shall  sleep  at  Tophana  to- 
night, but  every  one  of  my  three  wives  over  the  water 
will  have  her  loaf  of  bread  and  her  candle  I  As  they 
&re  better  when  I  am  with  them,  every  ooe  of  them  is 
always  so  glad  to  see  me !'' 

As  the  greatest  facility  is  afforded  to  divorce,  some  of 
these  Turks  have  had  in  rotation  a  prodigious  number 
of  wives.  There  was  a  fellow  in  Adrianople,  one  Delhi 
Mustapha,  who  had  just  married  his  thirty-second  wife, 
but  his  was  an  extreme  and  rare  case.  For  some  ser- 
vices rendered  to  Sultan  Mahmoud  at  the  time  of  the 
bloody  destruction  of  the  Janizaries,  Delhi  Must^iha 
enjoyed  a  pension  of  some  700  piastres  a  month,  which 
would  make  less  than  80Z.  a  year  ;  yet  he  had  always  a 
full  harem.  As  he  was  not  yet  fifty  years  old,  there 
was  no  saying  how  many  more  times  he  might  be 
wedded  before  he  died.  He  was  not  known  to  possess 
either  house  or  land,  but  he  was  said  to  increase  his 
income  by  lending  small  sums  of  money  to  imprisoned 
debtors  at  high  rates  of  interest  and  good  security.  He 
had  formerly  been  raiber  liberal  to  hia  hareiQf  keeping 


— .,  -    —    — -II  -  ■*■  *»i 


an  aruba  and  a  pair  of  oxen  with  gilded  horns  for  tibieir 
use ;  bat  of  late  he  had  felt  the  pressure  of  the  times 
and  had  become  penurious. 

There  was  one  very  noticeable  improyraaent  which 
Bustem  Pasha  had  introduced.  His  konack  was  as 
usual  flanked  by  a  prison,  which  was  a  complete  pe8t>< 
house  when  he  came  to  Adrianople,  and  which  had 
repeatedly  spread  disease  through  the  konack.  He 
enlai^ed  this  prison,  he  pierced  it  with  windows,  he 
separated  the  prisoners,  divided  the  Christians  from  the 
Mussulmans,  and  the  debtors  from  the  criminals;  he 
had  the  building  well  cleansed  and  whitewashed  within, 
and  coloured  with  a  yellow  wash  without,  and  he  took 
other  measures  for  rendering  the  place  wholesome.  At 
present  it  was  the,  best  prison  in  the  empire.  The  debtors 
were  upstairs,  in  apartments  which  were  at  least  suffi- 
ciently aired ;  the  criminals,  or  those  accused  of  crime, 
were  below  on  the  ground  floor. 

At  our  first  visit  to  the  Pasha's  konack,  just  as  we 
issued  from  the  gate  we  were  saluted  by  the  headsman, 
or  executioner,  a  horrible  looking  Nubian,  of  gigantic 
size,  who  had  come  up  from  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  who 
could  say,  "  buongiomo^  capitanr  He  had  his  heading* 
tool  in  his  girdle — a  big,  broad,  Turkish  yataghan ;  he 
was  facetious,  and  disposed  to  be  familiar.  I  have  had 
some  strange  acquaintances  in  my  time,  but  I  never 
before  exchanged  salutations  with  one  of  his  profession. 
The  last  head  he  had  taken  o£P  was  that  of  Papas  Lollio. 
Tes  I  that  &med  priest-robber,  bold  and  cunning  as  he 
was,  had  been  caught  at  last,  in  a  village  between 
Adrianople  and  Gallipoli,  and  lodged  in  the  Pasha'a 
pnsoai     If  we  had  only  arrived  a  few  days  sooner  we 


524  TURRET  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXDC. 

might  (but  most  certainly  woidd  not)  have  been  in  at 
the  death.  One  of  the  young  Schnells  had  attended 
the  awkward  execution,  and  had  scarcely  yet  recovered 
firom  the  sickening  effect  The  priest-robber  did  not 
die  game,  nor  did  he  die  quiet  and  penitent  In  the 
teeth  of  the  most  crushing  evidence  he  swore  that  he 
was  totally  innocent  When  they  removed  him  from 
his  prison  for  execution  in  the  public  streets  he  shrieked 
and  screamed  most  fearfully,  calling  upon  the  Pasha  to 
save  him — to  .save  a  man  unjustly  condemned  1  With 
his  hands  corded  behind  him,  they  had  to  drag  him 
to  the  spot — ^he  shrieking  all  the  way:  he  was  so 
troublesome  under  the  hand  of  the  executioner  that 
the  Nubian  had  to  cut  and  hack  at  him,  and  could 
scarcely  get  his  head  off  at  all.  It  was  a  horrible, 
revolting  sight;  but  there  were  few  spectators,  the 
Armenian  and  Greek  Christians  running  away  and 
hiding  themselves. 

Whatever  they  might  be  at  Constantinople,  capital 
executions  were  far  from  being  rarities  up  at  Adrianople. 
Within  the  last  five  months  the  Nubian  had  cut  or 
hacked  off  no  fewer  than  seven  heads.  At  the  last 
execution  the  fellow  had  done  his  work  with  evident 
reluctance ;  he  was  getting  heart-sick  of  his  calling,  and 
protesting  that  he  would  quit  it  A  head  or  two  in  a 
year  he  might  manage,  but  more  than  one  a  month — 
Allah  I  it  was  far  too  much.  Though  hideous  and  fierce 
in  his  looks,  some  of  our  friends  reported  him  to  be  a 
very  good-natured  fellow.  In  case  he  threw  up  his 
office  they  doubted  whether  there  was  a  man  in  the  city 
that  could  be  induced  to  take  it 

All  the  men  executed  of  late  were  Christians^  with 


Chap.  ZXIX.  BUSTEM  PASHA.  525 

the  exception  of  Papas  LoUio,  Bulgarians  of  the  Greek 
Church.  Rustem  Pasha  allowed  the  dead  bodies  and 
heads  to  be  removed  after  a  short  exposure  and  buried 
in  the  Christian  cemetery,  and  did  not  throw  them  into 
the  river  as  his  predecessors  had  done ;  but  he  pleaded 
that  his  religion  did  not  idlow  him  to  interdict  the 
beastly  custom  of  putting  a  Christian's  head  to  his  pos- 
teriors. When  a  Mussulman  is  executed  his  head  is 
put  under  his  arm.  It  was  necessary,  he  said,  to  keep 
up  this  distinction  ;  he  must  not  offend  the  Osmanlees ; 
he  durst  not  venture  to  change  the  ancient  usage ;  it 
was  adet,  a  part  of  religion.  And  this  man  was  swill- 
ing  wine  and  raki  daily  and  openly. 

My  enquiries  fully  satisfied  me  that  the  so-called 
Council  was  as  much  a  shadow  and  sham  at  Adria- 
nople  as  at  Brusa :  except  an  Armenian  who  was  the 
Pasha's  seraff,  hardly  one  of  the  Rayah  members  ever 
approached  it  Yet,  compared  with  most  of  his  prede- 
cessors, Rustem  was  considered  as  a  tolerably  good  and 
just  governor.  Our  Brusa  friend,  Mustapha-Nouree 
Pasha,  in  the  course  of  his  numerous  changes,  had  once 
been  here,  and  we  were  assured  that  if  he  had  stayed  a 
little  longer  he  would  have  eaten  up  the  whole  country 
— he  would  have  left  nothing  behind  him  but  dry  bones* 
Rayahs,  Mussulmans,  Franks,  all  concurred  in  de- 
nouncing him  as  the  most  rapacious  Pasha  they  had 
ever  known. 

Rustem  had  been  extolled  to  the  third  heaven  by 
the  *  Journal  de  Constantinople,*  which  had  especially 
praised  him  for  the  many  improvements  he  had  intro- 
duced in  this  city.  These  improvements  consisted  of 
a  new  wooden  khan  and  coffee-house,  and  a  very  small 


S26  TURKBT  AND  ITS  DE8TINT.         Cbii».  XXIX. 

wooden  posinoffice  opposite  to  die  cafe.  They  were 
mere  sheds;  but  being  span-new  and  painted  with 
bright  ookmrSy  and  ornamented,  they  looked  smart,  and 
the  cafi^  was  remarkably  attractive.  He  was  getting 
good  interest  for  his  outlay,  the  khan  being  let  at  an 
annual  rent  to  an  Armenian,  and  the  coffise-house  to  a 
Greek.  He  was  very  proud  of  these  buildings,  which 
have  probably  fed  the  flames  before  now.  Seeing  what 
he  did  every  day  that  he  went  out  in  Adrianople — the 
ruins  of  splendid  old  Turkish  khans,  solidly  and  beau* 
tiiully  built  like  those  at  Khavsk — ^his  pride  in  these 
constracttons  of  poles,  laths,  and  painted  planks  ou^^t 
to  have  been  abated. 

The  regular  troops  were  under  the  command  of 
Ismael  Fasha,  a  very  different  officer  from  Achmd; 
Pasha  at  Kutayah,  to  judge  from  the  wretched  state  in 
which  the  troops  were  kept  The  officer  next  in  rank 
to  this  Ismael,  and  one  who  oommanded  in  his  ab- 
sence, was  a  black  fellow  from  Nubia  or  Sennaar,  who 
very  much  resembled  the  black  executioner.  We  had 
been  told  over  and  over  again  that  there  were  5000 
regulars  at  Adrianople ;  we  now  learned  to  a  oertainty 
that  there  were  not  quite  2000  foot,  and  about  300 
horse.  Nothing  more  likely  than  that  the  Sultan  was 
paying  for  the  larger  number.  Very  extensive  bar- 
racks, about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  town,  on  a 
gentle  elevation  beyond  the  river  Tounjk,  were  built 
by  Sultan  Mahmoud,  and  finished  about  two  years 
before  tiie  Bussians  (in  1829)  came  to  lodge  in  them. 
They  were  almost  as  extensive  as  those  at  Scutari. 
There  were  detached  stables  and  barracks  for  the 
•cavalry,  but  liiese  were  small  and  mean.    These  was 


CfeAP.  XXffi.        WASTE  OF  ARMY  MATERIALS.  527 

no  detached  hospital;  and,  generally,  there  was  an 
appearance  of  carelessness  and  neglect.  Nothing  could 
well  be  more  ragged,  slovenly,  and  dirty  than  the  men. 
The  cavalry  soldieTO,^who  were  constancy  lounging  in 
the  town  about  ihe  bazaars  and  cofiee-houses,  were,  of 
the  two,  rather  liie  worse;  tbey  were  short,  ill-made, 
ill-looking  fellows,  and  in  a  truly  pitiable  condition  » 
to  clothes  I  There  was  not  a  clean  man,  or  a  whole 
jacket,  or  a  pair  of  untom  trousers  in  the  lot  There 
would  be  excellent  drilling^ound  in  front  of  the  bai^ 
racks,  but  no  pains  have  been  taken  to  level  it  But 
drill  and  every  kind  of  exercise  seemed  to  be  dispensed 
with  as  useless  and  troublesome  ceremonies. 

Among  the  ruins  of  die  Eski-Serai  or  Old  Palace, 
between  the  barracks  and  the  Tounjk,  we  saw,  huddled 
together  under  a  wooden  shed,  a  mimber  of  good  brass 
field-pieces ;  the  gun-carriages  were  rotting  and  worm- 
eaten  through  want  of  a  little  care  and  paint  And 
vsesiv  this  park  of  artillery  (which  certainly  cotuM  not 
be  used  on  any  sudden  emergency)  there  was  a  great 
heap  of  tent-cloths  lying  on  the  damp  ground  in  the 
most  slovenly  manner,  and  being  torn,  dirty,  and  offen- 
sive to  the  nostril.  Thus  are  army  materials  wasted 
through  sheer  indolence  and  carelessness !  The  canvas 
had  been  originally  strong  and  good ;  most  of  the  tents 
had  been  smeared  over  with  light  green  paint  When 
good  tents  are  thus  treated,  it  may  be  understood  how 
the  camp  equipage  of  the  army  forms  such  a  heavy 
item  of  expenditure.  The  expense  is  still  further 
swelled  by  roguery  and  plunder.  It  is  the  custom  of 
the  Turks  to  remove  the  men  out  of  barracks  about  the 
middle  or  the  end  of  May,  and  to  keep  them  under 


528  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  TTnr 

canvas  until  the  beginning  of  September.  The  bim- 
hashis  or  battalion-commandants  almost  invariably  re- 
turn more  men  than  are  present  under  arms^  and 
thereby  obtain  more  tents  than  are  needed;  the  mir 
allai  or  colonel  usually  doubles  this  false  return :  so  that 
between  colonels  and  chiefs  of  battalions,  some  fifteen 
or  twenty  tents  are  obtained  per  regiment,  half  of 
which  are  never  sent  back  to  the  stores.  Sometimes, 
when  accounts  are  kept,  the  colonel  is  charged  with  the 
deficit,  and  then  the  colonel  throws  it  upon  his  sub- 
ordinates ;  but,  except  on  very  rare  occasions,  payment 
and  punishment  are  alike  evaded.*  Where  people  are 
so  likely  to  be  burned  out  of  house  and  home  as  at  Con- 
stantinople, the  possession  of  a  few  tents  is  an  important 
consideration.  Whenever  a  great  fire  happens,  people 
are  of  necessity  driven  under  canvas.  One  night,  in 
the  month  of  April,  more  than  half  of  the  large  and 
populous  village  of  Arnaout-keni,  on  the  Bosphorus, 
was  burned  to  the  ground ;  and  when  we  passed  the 
spot,  two  or  three  days  after  the  catastrophe,  it  was 
covered  with  dirty  green  tents. 

Such  is  the  fatuity  of  these  men,  that  they  almost  al* 
ways  encamp  their  troops  on  unhealthy  ground,  by  which 
means  sickness  and  mortality  are  greater  under  canvas 
than  in  barracks.  It  was  so  at  Constantinople,  and  so  was 
it  here.     With  abundance  of  room  to  choose,  they  w^re 

*  For  fnrther  particulars  about  the  camp  equipage  and  the  gross  abnaaft 
in  this  and  other  departments  of  the  Turkish  army,  see  '  Three  Tears  m 
Constantinople,  by  Charles  White,  Esq.,'  vol.  iii.  p.  42. 

I  have  repeatedly  quoted  this  writer  because  I  am  aware  that  he  took 
great  pains  in  obtaining  correct  information,  and  becauae  I  know  personaUy 
and  well  some  of  the  gentlemen  (Turks  and  others)  who  were  the  main 
sources  of  that  information.  And  I  quote  Mr.  White  the  more  readily, 
as,  on  the  whole,  his  work  is  written  in  a  kind  and  very  induIgeDt  spirit. 


*•—     -' 


Chap.  XXIX.  THE  ESKI-SBRAI.  529 

going  to  pitch  the  tents  for  the  soldiers  on  a  low,  flat^ 
damp  triangle,  between  the  hills,  the  Tounjk,  and  the 
Hebrus.  In  every  branch  of  the  public  service  the 
system  of  peculation  is  indeed  unlimited ;  but,  from 
what  I  saw  at  Adrianople  and  elsewhere,  I  am  disposed 
to  believe  that  the  Sultan  loses  annually  quite  as  much 
by  negligence  as  by  plunder.  If  a  superior  officer 
would  check  this  foul  system,  he  must  do  everything  or 
see  to  everything  himself^  like  our  friend  Achmet 
Pasha  at  Eutayah. 

We  had  been  in  few  places,  even  in  Turkey,  so 
forlorn  as  the  Eski-Serai,  which  Lady  Mary  W. 
Montagu  has  painted  in  such  charming  colours.  It 
was  the  frequent  residence  of  many  successive  Sultans 
when  they  wished  to  be  near  the  seat  of  the  war  which 
they  were  waging  against  Christendom,  and  it  was  the 
constant  residence  of  some  of  them  when  the  turbulent 
Janizaries  would  allow  them  no  peace  at  Constantinople. 
The  greater  part  of  the  palace  has  entirely  disappeared ; 
they  knocked  down  a  great  deal  of  it  to  get  materials 
for  the  barracks,  and  they  destroyed  a  great  deal  more 
to  get  stones  for  building  the  long  bridge  across  the 
Hebrus.  The  Serai  must  have  consisted,  like  the 
Serri^^lio  at  Constantinople*  of  very  numerous  detached 
buildings,  standing  within  an  inclosure,  or  rather  within 
a  series  of  inclosures — stone  walls  and  stone  towers 
within  stone  walls  and  other  stone  towers.  The  whole 
area  within  the  almost  obliterated  outer  walls  is  tm- 
mense.  Two  tall,  massy,  square  towers  remain  tolerably 
perfect ;  but  should  more  stone  be  wanted,  they  will  be 
levelled  with  the  ground.  In  an  inner  inclosure  we 
noticed  a  very  curious,  India-looking  tower,  which  was 

VOL.  II.  2  M 


530  TOBEEY  AND  ITS  DESTIKY.         OiUT.  XZIX. 

square  below,  then  round,  and  then  projecting  like  a 
caouk  on  a  tombstone.     Opposite  to  this  tower  Uiere 
was  a  long  array  of  solid  and  very  picturesque  kitchen- 
chimneys,  which  formed  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
parts  of  the    dishonoured  renmants  of  this  imperial 
palace.      In  another    inclosure    there  was   a   shabby 
mosque,  wherein  the  Sultans  used  to  pray ;  but  nobody 
prayed  here  now,  and  it  was  falling  rapidly  to  pieces. 
That  grand  corps  de  logis,  the  imperial  harem,  wherein 
(traditionally,  at  least)  one  thousand  and  one  of  the 
fairest  women  in  the  universe  had  been  lodged  for  the 
solace  of  one  padishah,  had  almost  entirely  disappeared  ; 
but  in  front  of  it  there  stood,  as  yet  entire,  the  by  no 
means  extensive  wooden  kiosk  in  which  the  Sultans 
used  to  dwell.   Internally  this  kiosk  had  been  decorated 
with  a  good  deal  of  taste  and  magnificence,  though  the 
plan  was  small  and   confined.     Two  or  three  of  the 
rooms  were  lined  with  those  beautifiil  porcelain  tiles 
which  are  seen  in  perfection  in  the  grand  mausoleum 
at  Brusa;  and  the  ceilings  of  these  apartments  were 
prettily  inlaid.     The  roof  of  one  room  was  a  small 
dome  richly  and  most  tastefiiUy  embellished  and  gilded. 
But  there  was  nothing  solid,  nothing  made  to  last,  no 
single  part  that  was  good  throughout ;  the  best  of  the 
rooms  had  mean,  ill-made  doors  and  windows,  and  at 
best  the  whole  kiosk  looked  like  an  adorned  tent  or 
some  slight  fabric  set  up,  at  an  extravagant  expense, 
for   a   merely  temporary    occasion.      We    opened    a 
curious  variety  of  presses  and  cupboards,  and  peeped 
into  a  great  number  of  aueer  little  holes  and  recesses  in 
which  the  attendants  of  the  Commander  of  the  Faithiul 
had  been  accustomed  to  deposit  his  papers,  Korans» 


CiiAP.  XXiX.         BUSSIAN8  AT  ADBIANOPLE.  531 

clothesy  trinkets,  drinking-cups,  and  sweetmeats ;  and  we 
descended  into  a  small  but  beautiful  marble  bath,  which 
had  been  used  by  the  Amuraths,  the  Mahomets,  and 
Mustaphas  of  old ;  but  all  and  every  part  of  the  kiosk 
was  covered  with  dtist  and  dirt,  and  showing  symptoms 
of  rapid  decay.  There  was  not  a  single  article  of  fur- 
niture left.  We  sat  down  on  our  heels  in  one  of  the 
rooms  wherein  was  signed  the  humiliating  capitulation 
of  Adrianople  in  August,  1829,  and  pcmdered  over 
that  war,  of  which  I  had  seen  the  beginning  in  1828. 
Within  the  city,  hard  by,  there  were  thirteen  great 
pashas  in  command  of  troops — treize  a  table*  They 
had,  all  together,  a  force  of  from  30,000  to  40,000 
men,  wild  Albanians  and  other  irregulars,  yet  they 
dared  not  attempt  a  combat  with  10,000  wearied,  very 
sickly  Bussians.  There  was  no  heart  in  them,  or  in 
any  of  the  Turks ;  they  would  have  capitulated  if  the 
Russians  had  been  only  half  the  number  and  twice  as 
sickly  as  they  were.  The  Mussulman  population  of 
Adrianople  looked  on  with  a  stupid  wonder,  or  a  total 
indifference;  the  Bayahs  secretly  rejoiced  at  the  ap- 
proach of  the  Tzar's  army.  Some  of  the  pashas  ab- 
sconded ;  some  others  were  too  much  frightened  even 
to  run  away.  Our  friend  Mr.  E.  Schnell  first  went  out 
to  propose  the  terms  of  capitulation  to  the  Bussian 
generals,  and  but  for  his  forethought  and  perfect  seli^ 
possession  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  conditions  would 
have  been  made.  There  was  not  a  thinking  man  who 
witnessed  that  day's  proceedings,  and  that  utter  prostra* 
tion  of  the  once  proud  Osmanlees,  but  was  convinced  in 
his  own  mind  and  heart  that  the  knell  of  the  expiring 
Ottoman  Empire  had  sounded,  and  that  for  a  brief  and 

2  m2 


F 


532  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DB8TINY.         Chap.  XXTX. 

precarious  remnant  of  existence  it  must  be  indebted  to 
foreign  steel  and  foreign  ranks,  or  to  the  jealousy  borne 
by  the  great  powers  of  the  West  towards  Russia.  That 
very  jealousy  was  the  cause  of  the  very  grossest  misre- 
presentations being  spread  at  the  time  in  France  and 
England.  All  those  tales  about  the  patriotism,  grief^ 
despair,  and  sUent  rage  with  which  the  Osmanlees  saw 
the  Muscovites  take  possession  of  Mahmoud's  barracks, 
march  into  the  city,  visit  the  mosques,  and  drink  the 
holy  waters  under  the  very  dome  of  the  grand  mosque 
of  Sultan  Selim,  were  fables  and  pure  inventions.  There 
was  nothing  of  the  sort.  I  took  much  pains  to  ascer- 
tain the  truth — during  eight  days  I  spoke  with  many 
persons  of  different  interests,  opinions,  and  religions^ 
and  they  one  and  all  affirmed  that  the  feeling  of  the 
Turks  in  general  was  one  of  total  indifference,  and  that 
when  they  had  a  few  days'  experience  of  the  excellent 
discipline  which  General  Diebitch  maintained  among 
his  troops,  the  majority  of  them  were  rather  friendly 
than  otherwise  with  the  Russians.  The  Albanians  and 
the  rest  of  the  irregulars  broke  up  and  made  for  their 
own  homes,  plundering  and  butchering  on  their  way 
their  own  people  or  fellow-subjects,  and  making  little 
distinction  between  Mussulmans  and  Christian  Rayahs. 
The  country  people  from  far  and  near  flocked  to  Die- 
bitch's  head-quarters  to  sell  their  fruits,  vegetables, 
poultry,  and  all  manner  of  provisions,  and  nobody  could 
remember  the  market  of  Adrianople  ever  to  have  been 
so  well  supplied  as  during  the  stay  of  the  Russians. 
In  nearly  every  man  they  met  the  Russian  soldiers 
found  a  co-religionist,  for  the  Bulgarians,  who  swarm  in 
the  upper  valley  of  the  Hebrus,  were,  like  the  Greek 


BSi 


Chap,  XXTX.    GRAND  MOSQUE  OF  ADRIANOPLE.  533 

Bayahs,  of  the  same  Eastern  Church  as  themselves, 
following  the  same  creed  with  none  but  the  slightest 
variations,  practising  the  same  ritual,  and  worshipping 
the  same  panagia  and  saints.  That  which  was  perfectly 
true  was  the  fearful  mortality  which  broke  out  in  Die- 
bitch's  little  army.  Some  said  it  was  a  plague,  but  the 
malady  appears  to  have  been  a  good  deal  more  like 
cholera^  and  to  have  been  chiefly  produced  by  the  fruit 
and  raw  vegetables  which  the  men  bought  for  very 
little  and  consumed  with  great  avidity.  Long  loose 
ridges  of  earth  above  the  left  bank  of  the  Hebrus 
marked  the  great  grave-pits  in  which  mouldered  the 
remains  of  Cossacks  from  the  Don  and  soldiers  from 
nearly  every  part  of  the  measureless  empire  of  the 
Tzar. 

The  grand  mosque  of  Sultan  Selim,  the  pride  and 
boast  of  Adrianople,  merits  (externally  at  least)  all  the 
praise  that  has  been  bestowed  upon  it,  and  perhaps 
even  more.  The  elevated  site  is  magnificent,  rising 
like  an  Acropolis  above  the  city.  Though  inferior  in 
size,  this  mosque  produced  upon  me  an  impression 
of  more  grandeur  than  the  most  famous  mosque  of 
Sultan  Achmet  by  the  Hippodrome  at  Constantinople : 
its  white  minarets,  stone-built  and  strong,  but  light, 
airy,  and  most  elegant,  shot  up  in  the  blue  sky,  and 
exhibited  each  its  golden  crescent  at  a  sublime  eleva- 
tion, looking  as  if  they  had  grown  out  of  the  solid 
earth,  and  were  yet  growing  in  height  The  sight  is 
worth  a  journey  of  more  miles  than  lie  between  the 
city  of  Constantine  and  the  city  of  Hadrian.  Yet 
here  too  were  signs  of  decay,  and  more  signs  of  neglect 
and  wilful  destruction.     Some  curious,  and  at  the  same 


584  TURKEY  Alf D  ITS  DB8TINY.         CtaAP.  XXIX. 

time  rustic  work,  cut  in  solid  stone  at  the  basement^ 
had  been  much  broken  and  de&ced,  the  fractures  praTing 
that  the  barbarous  deeds  had  been  done  recently  and 
at  much  trouble.  The  very  fountain  attached  to  one 
of  the  flanks  of  the  mosque,  in  order  that  the  faithftd 
might  perform  the  prescribed  ablutions  before  entering 
the  house  of  prayer,  had  been  battered  and  de&ced, 
and  in  part  quite  spoiled.  Of  a  long  row  of  brass 
cocks,  placed  at  regular  distances  for  the  convenience 
of  the  followers  of  the  Prophet,  some  had  been  wrenched 
firom  their  sockets,  and  some  had  been  broken  and 
rendered  useless.  This  was  not  the  work  of  unbeliev- 
ing Christians  and  Jews;  the  Rayahs  seldom  came 
near  the  mosque,  and  whatever  might  be  their  inclina- 
tion, they  would  not  have  courage  enough  to  touch  a 
stone  of  the  edifice:  the  work  of  destruction  must 
all  have  been  perpetrated  by  the  Turks  themselves. 
Twenty  years  ago  it  forcibly  struck  me  that,  if  these 
barbarians  were  driven  out  of  Europe,  they  would 
scarcely  leave  behind  them  a  trace  of  existence  except 
in  a  few  stately  mosquea.  Are  they  now  determmed 
that  these  too  shall  down  ?  Have  they  bound  thenor 
selves  by  a  vow  of  destruction  ?  Will  they  leave  nothing 
to  show  that  they  have  been  here  but  their  tombstones  ? 
Nay,  they  bid  fair  not  to  leave  even  these. 

The  interior  of  this  beautiful  mosque  was  a  good 
deal  spoiled  with  paint  and  plaster,  but  it  never  could 
have  been  comparable  with  its  exterior.  The  celebrated 
fountain  in  the  centre,  under  the  great  dome,  is  a 
shabby  little  thing  cut  in  stone,  and  that  which  a  late 
French  traveller*  calls  "  une  tribwne  carree^  du  travail 

*  M.  Bknqni, '  Voyage  en  Bulgarie/ 


m^. 


Obaj^.  XXIX.    GRAND  MOSQUE  OP'  ADRliNOPLB.  535 

le  plus  exquis^  is  merely  a  paltty  waoden  staged  put 
over  the  fountain.  It  was  prayer-time,  but  only  two 
Turks  were  within  at  their  prayers.  We  ascended  the 
wondrous  minaret  with  the  three  corkscrew  staircases 
within  it)  these  staircases  having  their  thr^e  several 
entrances,  and  running  one  within  another,  in  a  way 
which  the  Turks  consider  altogether  incomprehensible. 
Their  legend  is,  that  the  man  who  built  it  was  put  to 
death,  in  order  that  it  might  have  no  fellow,  but 
remain  unique  in  the  world.  It  is  certainly  a  most 
remarkable  construction,  and  the  panorama  which  tt 
affords  of  the  city,  the  open  country,  the  Hebrus,  the 
Toun^  and  the  Ardk,  the  bridges,  barracks,  ruined 
palace,  cemeteries,  and  encircling  mountains,  is  one  of 
the  most  curious,  and,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the 
finest  that  can  be  conceived.  The  sun  wds  bright  and 
hot,  but  a  cold  impetuous  wind  came  down  the  valley 
of  the  Hebrus  and  shook  the  minaret.  As  we  stood 
out  in  the  narrow  stone  gallery  (from  which  the 
muezzin  call  the  faithful  to  prayers),  high  up  in  the 
air,  the  sensation  was  not  very  agreeable. 

The  medresseh  or  college  adjoining  the  mosque 
seemed  quite  abandoned.  They  said  there  were  some 
students,  but  we  did  not  see  one.  The  apartments 
were  shut  up,  and  grass  was  growing  at  their  thresholds ; 
the  little  gardens  in  the  quadrangles  were  covered  with 
docks  and  weeds,  and  the  paths  with  coarse  grass. 
Another  of  the  innumerable  proofs  we  had  seen  that 
the  Vakouf  law  has  entirely  lost  its  Sanctity,  and  that 
the  endowments  of  temples  and  colleges  have  been 
seized  and  wasted  by  government  1 

The  mosques  ate  very  numerous  in  the  city ;  and 


536  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX- 

thongh  none  can  be  for  a  moment  compared  with  the 
Selim  Jamij  there  are  several  that  are  interesting,  and 
some  three  or  four  that  are  very  stately.  In  the  large 
courtyard  of  the  mosque  of  Sultan  Murad  I  was  much 
struck  by  the  irregular,  grotesque  appearance  of  the 
colonnade :  no  two  columns  were  alike,  in  style,  size, 
or  material ;  they  seemed  all  to  have  been  taken  from 
different  places,  and  from  different  ancient  Greek  edi- 
fices which  had  been  raised  at  very  different  periods. 
And  this,  in  fact,  is  the  manner  in  which  the  Turks 
have  provided  the  columns  of  nearly  all  their  mosques, 
quarrying  and  cutting  none  themselves,  but  taking 
some  here  and  some  there,  just  as  they  found  them,  in 
the  classical  temples,  old  Christian  churches,  and  other 
edifices.  If  some  were  shorter  than  others,  they  gave 
them  a  taller  pedestal  or  a  broader  capital,  and  so  made 
the  "odds"  or  the  lengths  even,  caring  very  little 
whether  the  bases  agreed  or  disagreed,  or  whether  the 
capitals  were  of  one  fashion  or  of  twenty  different  styles. 
The  great  Santa  Sophia  itself  (at  Constantinople)  is 
little  more  than  a  collection  of  stolen  goods,  for  the 
degenerate  Greeks  of  the  Lower  Empire  had  adopted 
this  system  long  before  the  Turks  came  into  Europe. 

In  the  square  of  the  mosque  of  Sultan  Murad  there 
was  a  fine  covered  fountain  which  had  been  no  better 
treated  than  the  others.  In  the  lower  part  of  the  town, 
towards  the  Tounjk,  we  visited  the  ruins  of  an  old 
Greek  church,  which  had  been  converted  by  the  con- 
querors into  a  mosque,  and  which  for  four  hundred 
years  had  echoed  "  There  is  no  God  but  God,  and  Ma- 
homet is  his  Prophet  ;'*  but  the  domes  had  been  allowed 
to  &11  in,  and  the  twice  holy  place  had  become  a  dor- 


•itX 


■PNM 


mfmmm 


mun 


MnaM« 


Ohap.  XXIX.    RUINED  MOSQUES  ANT)  COLLEGES. 


537 


mitory  of  tbe  filthy,  unowned  dogs  of  the  town.  Yet, 
within  it,  there  was  an  agidsma^  or  holy  fountain,  with 
some  low  bushes  growing  by  it ;  and  on  these  bushes 
Greeks  and  Turks  had  been  tying  bits  of  rags,  as  an 
efiectual  or  approved  method  of  tying  up  or  getting  rid 
of  their  intermittent  fevers.  In  a  very  short  walk  from 
these  ruins  we  passed /t^^  other  totally  ruined  mosques, 
and  several  ruined  medressehs  and  baths.  The  finest 
of  all  the  Turkish  baths  was  utterly  abandoned,  and 
was  fast  becoming  an  unsightly  heap  of  stones,  bricks, 
and  rubbish.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  city,  above  the 
great  khans,  there  was  another  klissia-jamij  or  church 
mosque,  which  was  as  yet  entire  and  used  by  the  Mus- 
sulmans as  a  place  of  worship  ;  and  into  this  the  Turks 
would  not  allow  Christians  to  enter  without  an  express 
order  from  the  pasha. 

We  visited  two  or  three  of  their  ruined  khans,  which 
exhibited  sad  and  irritating  sights.  They  had  been 
admirably  planned,  and  built  even  more  solidly  than 
those  which  had  so  much  interested  us  at  Khavsa ;  they 
had  had  fine  stables,  fine  open  quadrangles,  stately 
arcades  and  corridors,  commodious  apartments  for  tra- 
vellers and  merchants,  ^re-proof  magazines  for  mer- 
chandise, ovens,  fountains,  and  baths;  but  they  had 
been  knocking  them  down  to  get  the  iron  and  the  lead, 
and  to  have  the  stones  for  throwing  on  the  horrible 
causeway !  These  were  works  built  by  the  Turks  not 
three  centuries  ago;  and  now  the  Turks  themselves 
were  destroying  them  I  In  the  great  quadrangle  of  one 
of  these  khans  there  were  a  few  patient  camels  that 
had  come  off  a  journey,  and  about  half  a  score  of  Turks 
that  were  smoking  among  the  ruins  as  if  totally  uncon- 


588  TOHKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

cemed  in  the  devastation.  Even  the  great  old  khan  of 
Bostem  Pasha,  where  M.  Blanqui  found  a  very  com- 
fortless lodging-room,*  and  where  Mr.  SchneU  and 
other  merchants  had  their  offices,  was  in  a  sad,  slovenly, 
dilapidated  condition ;  only  two  quadrangles  of  it  were 
left  A  small  mosque,  with  a  fountain  beneath  it,  which 
stood  in  the  first  quadrangle,  was  an  unsightly  ruin ;  bat 
&e  Turks  neither  used  it,  nor  would  permit  it  to  be 
removed.  The  pavement  of  both  the  courts  was  almost 
as  rough  as  the  causeway.  In  the  rear  of  this  khan 
there  was  a  foul  cloaca  flanked  by  fine  ranges  of  sta- 
bling, and  by  spacious,  solidly  built  magazines,  all  void, 
and  going  to  that  ruin  which  was  universal.  Opposite 
to  this  great  khan  of  Rustem  Pasha  there  was  another 
occupied  by  native  merchants  or  dealers,  and  in  a  still 
worse  condition. 

In  different  walks  and  rides  we  went  through  every 
part  of  Adrianople,  yet  we  did  not  see  one  decent  habi- 
tation. We  saw  some  big  rambling  houses,  and  some 
houses  which  had  been  quaint  and  pretty  enough  when 

*  The  Parisian  Professor  of  Political  Economy  is  quite  pathetic  on  this 
subject ;  but  his  description  is  here  correct : — "  Qui  croirait,  que  dans  una 
Tffle  comme  Andrinople,  la  seconde  de  Pempire,  il  nous  fftt  impossible, 
meme  avec  I'asostanoe  de  Pagent  oonsulaire  de  France,  de  trouver  une 
auberge  habitable !  Apr^s  de  longs  et  inutiles  efforts,  il  fallut  nous  r^gner 
it  accepter  pour  asile  une  des  loges  du  grand  khan,  dit  de  Rustem  Pacha. 
C*<itait  nn  vieux  caraTans^rail  bfiti  en  forme  de  oooTent,  avec  one  Taste 
oour  int^rieure  et  une  galerie  couverte  au  premier  ^tage,  galerie  sur  laquelle 
s^ouvraient  une  suite  de  cellules  destinies  aux  Toyageurs.  Quand  nous 
entiftmes  dans  cdle  qui  nous  ^tait  assign^,  nous  y  trouvAmes  une  ixNicke 
de  fumier  de  plus  de  quarante  centimetres  de  hauteur,  due  au  a^jour  de 
plusieurs  oentaines  de  corneilles  qui  y  avaient  ^tabli  leur  domicile  de 
temps  immemorial.  II  ne  fallut  pas  moins  de  trois  beures  pour  les  pre- 
mioses  operations  d'assainissement ;  apr^  quoit  loisque  j'eus  fait  acheter 
en  ville  les  nattes,  un  peu  de  vaisseUe  et  les  Agents  ptimitifs  du  mobilier 
le  plus  Indispensable,  il  nous  fbt  pennis  de  prendiv  un  peu  de  repoa.** 


Ohap.  XXIX.  TRADE  OF  ADRIANOPLE.  5*9 

new  and  freshly  painted-;  bat  they  were  now  dingy  and 
tumbling  to  pieces.  Many  spaces  not  long  since  co* 
vered  with  habitations  were  now  vacant ;  and  a  good 
deal  of  room  within  the  town  is  taken  up  by  gardens, 
which  are  very  mean,  and  by  trees  and  groves  which 
produce  a  very  pretty  effect  when  seen  at  a  distance. 

I  had  the  usual  difficulty  in  ascertaining  the  amount 
and  the  relative  proportions  of  the  population. .  Accord- 
ing to  the  best  information  I  could  obtain,  the  ten  years' 
cessation  of  plague  had  not  been  attended  by  any  iii-> 
crease  on  the  part  of  the  Mussulmans  ;  the  entire  popu- 
lation was  rather  below  than  above  80,000,  and  the 
Turks  were  now  far  outnumbered  by  the  Rayahs.  The 
Greeks  were  evidently  the  most  numerous  of  all.  The 
Armenians  and  Jews  were  said  to  amount  to  nearly 
20,000,  but  I  believe  that  in  this  calculation  some  con* 
tiguous  Armenian  villages  were  taken  in.  There  were 
Bulgarian  labourers  in  the  country  (mostly  migratory), 
but  there  was  no  Bulgarian  element  in  the  population 
of  the  city.  All  the  Bulgarian  ladies  that  M.  Blanqui 
saw  dancing  at  the  French  consul's  at  Adrianople 
were  Chreeh ;  but  this  traveller,  like  his  compatriot  M. 
Cyprien  Robert,  was  looking  for  Bulgarians,  and  fram- 
ing a  political  theory,  and  was  predetermined  to  find 
Bulgarians  everywhere. 

Considering  its  size,  and  its  situation  in  the  centre  of 
a  naturally  rich  country,  and  on  a  large  river  which  is 
not  altogether  useless  to  commerce,  the  trade  of  Adria- 
nople has  long  been  comparatively  insignificant  The 
unprecedented  activity  in  the  exports  of  produce  in 
1846-7,  which  had  not  been  accompanied  by  any  visible 
increase  of  manu&ctured  imports,  had  been  followed  by 


540  TURKEY  AND  IT8  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

a  dead  lulL  There  was  nothing  doing.  People  were 
bitterly  regretting  that  they  had  invested  money  in 
agricaltural  speculations,  or  in  advances  to  fermers  who 
had  been  extending  the  cultivation  of  wheat,  barley, 
sesame^  and  linseed ;  they  said  that  nothing  would  bring 
them  right  but  bad  crops  in  England  and  France.  As 
there  were  no  roads  that  merited  the  name,  and  as  the 
Hebrus  (now  always  called  the  Maritza)  could  be  used 
Only  during  certain  months  of  the  year,  the  moyens 
de  tt*ansport  were  difficult,  sometimes  dangerous,  and 
always  expensive.  In  the  month  of  May,  1846,  when 
Abdul  Medjid  and  Reschid  Pasha  were  at  Adrianople, 
there  was  a  great  talk  about  making  immediate  im- 
provements^ and  before  I  left  England  in  1847,  I  had 
been  assured  that  funds  had  been  issued  from  the  Sul- 
tan's private  treasury  to  render  the  Maritza  navigable 
to  the  gulf  of  Enos,  to  repair  the  embankments  of  the 
river,  to  canalize  it  where  necessary,  and  to  clean  out 
and  deepen  the  port  of  Enos.  These  were  grand  desi- 
derata. Before  quitting  the  city  the  Sultan  was  said  to 
have  thus  delivered  himself  to  an  Armenian  banker  and 
merchant  of  the  place :  ^^  I  am  well  satisfied  with  your 
city ;  the  country  seems  poovy  but  with  God*s  help  I 
will  do  that  which  shall  render  it  again  prosperous. 
Ships  will  soon  come  up  your  river,  and  great  ships  be 
able  to  anchor  in  the  port  of  Enos.  Commerce  will 
bring  you  all  that  you  want."  There  had  really  been 
here  something  more  than  fine  phrases  or  a  bare  inten- 
tion. A  beginning  had  been  made,  something  had  been 
done ;  but  how  ?  While  they  had  skilful  civil  engineers 
in  their  pay  and  doing  nothing,  and  while  M.  Poirel  was 
promenading  the  country  and  drawing  up  reports  and 


•       i*>   »      ■'       "     M       ^1^ 


Chap.  XXIX.      THE  HEBRUS  — PORT  OF  ENOS.  541 

plans,  the  Turks  sent  an  ignorant,  blundering  pasha  to 
direct  the  works,  and  persisted  in  turning  a  deaf  ear  to 
those  who  represented  that  the  pasha  did  not  under^ 
stand  the  business,  and  was  only  throwing  away  money. 

At  the  choked-up  mouth  of  the  port  of  Enos,  which 
was  not  to  be  cleared  by  a  dozen  powerful  dre(^ing- 
machines — ^which  was  not  to  be  cleared  at  all  without 
various  preliminary  labours — they  employed  one  small 
steam-dredger,  brought  out  from  England  for  the  pur^- 
pose,  and  managed  by  a  sober,  respectable  Scotchman,  a 
good  practical  man,  though  not  a  scientific  engineer.  He 
found  that  the  sand  was  rolled  back  by  the  waves  of  the 
JEgean  Sea  quite  as  fast  as  he  could  remove  it ;  his 
work  was  as  idle  as  drawing  water  in  a  sieve,  or  with  a 
bucket  that  had  no  bottom ;  and  so  he  told  the  pasha, 
who  merely  said,  "  Baccalum,  dredge  away  I"  The 
poor  fellow  dredged  his  heart  out,  caught  the  malaria 
fever  in  its  worst  form,  threw  up  his  employment  in  the 
autumn  of  1847)  went  up  for  cure  to  Constantinople, 
and  died  at  Pera  three  days  after  his  arrival.  His 
name  was  John  Mikeison. 

Many  native  labourers  died  on  the  spot;  the  blun- 
dering pasha  escaped  by  keeping  himself  at  a  village 
on  the  mountains,  and  by  hardly  ever  coming  near  the 
scene  of  the  operations.  These  were  worse  on  the  river 
than  on  the  sea-port,  for  there  the  dredging  had  left 
matters  in  statu  quo^  while  here  his  embankments  and 
dikes,  besides  interrupting  such  navigation  as  there  was, 
had  done  a  vast  deal  more  harm  than  good  to  the  course 
of  the  river.  All  last  year — the  busiest  year  they  had 
ever  known — the  merchants  found  their  produce  stopped 
by  an  immense   Turkish  barrage  or  dam,  which  was 


542  TUBKEY  ANP  ITS  DESTINY.         (^ap.  XXIX. 

conceived  in  ignorance  and  executed  ui  fatuity.   Against 
all  advice  and  remonstrance  the  pasha  had  placed  this 
barrage  in  the  very  spot,  and  in  the  very  direction^  in 
which  it  ought  not  to  have  been ;  he  had  laid  his  foun- 
dations in  the  water  with  small  stones,  and  had  kept  all 
his  large  heavy  stones  to  put  at  top,  and  to  give  the 
concern  a  good  bold  outward  appearance.     That  which 
had  been  predicted  had  happened  ;  when  the  rainy  sea- 
son of  1847  set  in,  when  the  Hebrus  began  to  be  swollen 
by  the  torrents  from  Haemus  and  Rhodope,  the  miserable 
dam  was  swept  away — ay,  swept  away  at  the  very  first 
flushing  of  the  river,  as  if  it  had  been  but  a  bank  of 
loose  sand !     After  wasting  prodigious  sums  of  money, 
and  pocketing  a  round  number  of  purses  for  himself  the 
engineerbg  pasha  had  gone  back  to  the  capital,  the 
works  had  been  entirely  abandoned,  and  the  enlight^ 
ened  government  of  Reschid  Pasha  had  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  not  in  their  kismet  to  dear  out  die 
commodious  port  of  Enos,  and  to  render  the  Maritza 
navigable  at  all  times  of  the  year. 

Many  curses  had  gone  and  were  yet  going  after  this 
precious  engineer.  He  had  converted  chiftliks  into 
swamps ;  by  his  blunders  he  had  given  the  hand  to  de- 
vastation ;  for  his  great  works  the  Turks  had  laid  on  a 
duty  of  1 0  per  cent,  on  the  freight  of  every  boat  or  raft 
that  ascended  or  descended  the  river,  and  they  were 
continuing  to  levy  this  toll  all  the  same.  They  will 
never  take  off  the  imposition  unless  Sir  Stratford 
Canning,  or  some  other  foreign  minister,  oblige  them 
so  to  do.  Foreign  diplomacy  has  some  right  to  inter- 
fere, for  the  10  per  cent  really  falls  upon  the  Frank 
merchants.     In  the  case  of  an  Ionian  Greek  boat  which 


r-;  r  v .  ■■^—i ^■aawgWfc.^fc 


Qhat.  XXIX.        BABRAaE  OF  THE  MABITZA.  543 

had  come  up  the  river  from  Enos,  and  was  now  here, 
Mr.  Willshire,  our  consul,  after  a  hard  fight  with  the 
pasha,  had  successfully  resisted  the  demand.  During 
all  the  busy  year  of  1847  the  merchants  were  obliged 
to  unload  their  rafts  above  the  barrage,  to  transport 
their  produce  overland,  and  then  to  load  again  in  other 
rafts;  and  through  the  expense,  damage,  and  loss  of 
material  and  time,  the  commerce  of  Adrianople  had 
incurred  a  sacrifice  of  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
piastres.  Except  the  one  Ionian  boat,  which  might  be 
of  about  twenty  tons,  raits  of  the  rudest  construction 
were  the  only  vessels  we  saw  at  Adrianople :  they  were 
oblong  squares,  varying  in  length  firom  20  to  40  feet, 
and  in  breadth  from  about  7  to  about  15  feet ;  they 
were  made  of  fir  planks ;  upon  a  platform  frailly  put 
together,  planks,  on  either  side,  and  fore  and  aft,  were 
raised  to  the  height  of  two  or  three  feet ;  and  upon  these 
crazy  radeaux  they  put  their  corn,  linseed,  and  their 
other  produce  destined  for  exportation  at  Enos.  The 
rafts  could  carry  but  small  cargoes,  which  were  always 
more  or  less  damaged  by  water ;  not  unfrequently  they 
went  to  pieces  and  spilt  their  cai^oes  in  the  river,  when 
wheat,  sesame,  and  linseed  were  whirled  down  the 
rapid  Hebrus  like  the  head  of  Orpheus,  which  could 
not  stop,  but  could  only  sing  reproachfiiUy  at  the 
savages  of  old  Thrace.  The  rafts  are  sold  for  fuel  or 
for  building  materials,  as  they  could  not  well  be  brought 
up  from  Enos  against  the  strong  current.  As  the 
waters  were  yet  high  we  saw  some  of  them  come  floating 
down  from  Fhilippopoli  to  Adrianople;  but  these 
voyages  would  soon  be  stopped,  and  in  July  and  August 
there  would  scarcely  be  any  water  here  in  the  bed  of 


544  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  ^TTX 

the  river ;  and  what  looked  now  so  fresh  and  beautiful 
would  be  nearly  all  bare  sand  or  dark  mud.  At  tihe 
end  of  the  summer  of  1841  M.  Blanqui,  coming  from 
Philippopoli  and  entering  this  city  by  the  long  stone 
bridge,  passed  the  classical  Hebrus  without  knowing  it, 
and  even  without  being  aware  that  there  was  any  river 
there. 

The  Tounja  (at  the  time  of  our  visit  a  full  and  very- 
rapid  stream)  falls  into  the  Hebrus  or  Maritza,  by  its 
left  bank,  a  very  little  way  below  the  city ;  the  other 
great  affluent,  the  Ardk,  cutting  the  right  bank,  joins 
the  Hebrus  a  little  above  the  village  of  Kara-Atch,  and 
in  the  month  of  May  it  also  brought  down  a  great 
volume  of  water  with  an  impetuous  course.  Between 
the  city  and  the  Eski-Serai  the  Tounjk  is  crossed  by 
three  rough  old  stone  bridges,  one  of  which  appears  to 
be  a  Roman  work. 

The  new  long  stone  bridge  over  the  Hebrus  was 
commenced  by  Sultan-Mahmoud,  and  finished  in  the 
second  year  of  the  reign  of  his  son :  it  is  narrow,  and 
is  but  roughly  made ;  the  Armenian  builder  had  in  his 
eye  some  of  the  graceful  lines  and  forms  of  the  old 
bridge  at  Babk-Eskissi,  but  was  incapable  of  re-pro- 
ducing them  ;  the  jutting  balcony  or  gallery,  the  screen 
with  the  inscription,  the  parapets,  the  ornaments  be- 
tween the  arches,  were  all  of  scamped,  slovenly  work- 
manship ;  but  the  piers  appeared  to  be  strong,  and  the 
buttresses  boldly  faced  the  current,  which  was  then 
heady,  and  had  been  tremendous  a  month  or  two 
before.  The  pressure  against  the  piers  and  buttresses 
must  be  alarming  whenever  the  Hebrus  is  much  swollen. 
In  the  month    of  April,   1841,    on    the  great  Greek 


^MP 


Chap.  XXIX.  MULBERRY  PLANTATIONS.  545 

festival  of  the  "  Forty  Martyrs,"  the  bridge,  not  then 
quite  finished,  broke  down,  in  part,  and  caused  the 
death  of  72  persons.  For  no  distant  date  one  may 
safely  predict  some  similar  or  more  fatal  catastrophe* 
Near  the  head  of  this  bridge,  on  the  town  side,  right 
over  the  bank  of  the  Hebrus,  they  had  erected  a  large, 
staring,  wooden  kiosk  wherein  to  lodge  the  Sultan  in 
1846.  At  a  tithe  of  the  expense  they  might  have 
rendered  the  kiosk  in  the  Eski-^Serai  a  comfortable 
lodging  for  Abdul  Medjid,  who  was  to  stay  only  a  few 
days;  but  the  Turks  and  their  Armenian  managers 
always  prefer  making  new  buildings  to  restoring  old 
ones.  This  house,  having  served  its  purpose  for  a  few 
days,  was  shut  up  at  the  Sultan's  departure:  it  had 
never  been  opened  since,  and  as  it  was  entirely  built 
of  wood  it  would  very  soon  go  to  ruin  like  the  kiosk, 
built  on  Olympus,  above  Brusa,  for  the  like  temporary 
purpose. 

Near  the  opposite  end  of  the  bridge  were  the  new 
houses  and  enclosed  gardens  of  some  Armenian  seraffi, 
to  the  left  of  which  (near  the  side  of  the  river)  was  a 
long  straggling  village,  intermixed  with  mulberry  plan- 
tations, and  occupied  by  poor  Greek  and  Armenian 
gardeners,  who  suffered  greatly  from  the  intermittent 
fevers. 

The  country  between  this  end  of  the  bridge  and  Eara- 
Atch,  where  not  covered  by  broad  beds  of  deep  sand 
left  by  the  overflowings  of  the  river,  was  nearly  all  one 
mulberry  garden,  the  different  properties  being  separated 
by  embankments  and  ditches,  which  were  made  or 
maintained  in  a  very  negligent  manner.  The  mulberry 
trees  and  straggling  plantations  were  far  from  being 

VOL.  II.  2  K 


546  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

managed  with  such  care  as  tibose  at  Brusa.  Some  im* 
provemeats  had  been  made,  but  the  market  value  of 
Adrianople  silk  was  still  from  10  to  15  per  cent  below 
that  of  the  silk  of  Brusa.  The  people  of  Adrianople 
depend  a  great  deal  on  this  production :  nearly,  every 
married  man  that  has  anything  has  a  mulberry-planta- 
tion,  and  employs  his  wife  and  children  in  tending  the 
silkworms.  The  cocoons  they  generally  sell  to  some 
wealthy  Greek  or  Armenian  who  has  the  machinery^ 
the  large  reels,  etc.,  for  winding  off  the  silk.  This  in- 
dustry, which  might  be  a  very  good  walking-stick,  is  but 
a  bad  crutch ;  and  the  people  have  got  too  much  in  the 
way  of  depending  entirely  upon  it.  Besides  the  great 
and  sudden  fluctuations  iu  the  prices  of  the  commodity, 
the  climate  is  not  altoge^ier  propitious  either  to  the 
worms  or  to  the  plants  which  feed  them.  This  year 
things  were  wearing  a  very  bad  aspect;  prices  were 
very  low ;  there  was  hardly  any  demand  in  England, 
and  none  at  all  in  France. 

Much  of  this  rich  alluvial  soil  might  be  more  pro-> 
fitably  employed  than  in  growing  mulberry-trees.  In 
the  neighbourhood  of  Kara- Atch  there  were  some  spa- 
cious vineyards,  and  on  either  side  of  the  Hebrus  a 
very  pleasant  light  wine  was  produced.  The  Frank 
families,  who  had  bestowed  some  slight  extra  attention 
to  the  making,  had  some  wine  which  was  quite  equal  to 
the  second-class  Bordeaux.  Even  this  might  be  im- 
proved upon,  and  an  immense  quantity  of  excellent  wine 
mig^t  be  produced  in  the  neighbourhood. 

For  some  miles  above  and  below  Adrianople,  and  on 
either  bank  of  the  river,  the  country  was  certainly  better 
cultivated  than  any  other  part  of  Turkey  that  we  had 


BT^^-T-TfiM  rm-i 


Chap.  XXIX.  VALLEY  OP  THE  HEBRUS.  547 

hitherto  seen.  There  was  an  immense  deal  of  fallow 
ground,  there  was  much  ground  which  had  evidently 
not  been  touched  for  ages,  and  nowhere  was  the  farming 
neat  or  good ;  but  still  the  valley  of  the  Hebrus  had  a 
cultivated  cheerful  look.  All  this,  however,  was  but  a 
mere  strip ;  if  you  quitted  the  valley  and  crossed  the 
ridges  on  either  side  of  it,  you  were  again  in  a  desert 
like  that  which  we  had  traversed  in  coming  from 
Bodostb  and  Baba-Eskissi,  and  from  that  place  to 
Adrianople.  In  the  best  cultivated  parts,  where  the 
people  had  been  excited  into  an  uausual  industry  by  the 
late  demands  for  produce,  the  villages  were  very  wretched 
and  the  people  to  all  appearance  a^  poor  as  ever.    Our 

host  Mr.  S. ,  who  knew  the  country  better  than 

any  one,  allowed  there  was  little  to  show  what  streams 
of  foreign  money  had  recently  flowed  through  these 
districts:  he  said  that  the  extortions  of  the  local 
governors  and  the  Armenian  farmers  of  the  revenue 
had  risen  in  proportion  with  the  temporary  increase  of 
prosperity;  and  that  some  of  the  farmers,  who  had 
really  made  money  in  1846-79  ^^^  ^^  contrived  to 
secure  it,  were  afraid  of  showing  their  prosperity  by 
repairing  their  wretched  houses  or  improving  their  dress 
and  appearance,  and  that  they  had  hid  and  buried  the 
money  in  the  bountiful  soil  from  which  it  had  been 
procured.  In  this  manner  the  money  was  lost  and 
dead — was  of  less  use  than  a  heap  of  unspread  manure. 

Mr.  S knew,  in  the  way  of  trade,  several  Greek 

Kayahs  who  had  made  money,  but  not  one  who  liked 
to  have  it  known ;  he  knew  several  Greek  towns  and 
villages  which  had  increased  in  population,  and  which 
had  furnished  lai^e  portions  of  the  produce  expof ted  to 

2n2 


548  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXIX 

Western  Europe ;  but  he  could  not  mention  one  that  had 
been  cleansed  and  beautified  or  in  any  way  improved — 
he  could  not  name  a  district  where  a  road  had  been 
made  or  a  bridge  built.  I  attach  the  highest  value  to 
his  testimony,  for  he  was  a  sensible  practical  man  of 
business,  without  theories  or  any  political  prejudices, 
with  a  feeling  rather  favourable  to  the  young  Sultan  and 
the  Turkish  part  of  the  population,  and  he  had  resided 
so  many  years  in  this  pashalik,  and  was  almost  constantly 
travelling  through  every  part  of  it.  Others,  who  had 
lived  here  still  longer  than  he  had,  told  me  that  they 
•had  witnessed  a  gradual  decline  of  the  Turkish  popula- 
tion.    Mr.  S declared   that,   notwithstanding  the 

late  activity  in  trade,  the  country  was  indisputably  far 
poorer  and  more  oppressed  than  when  he  first  came 
into  it  twenty-two  years  ago ;  and  he  gave  me  many 
proofs  derived  from  his  own  experience  in  business. 
He  said  that  the  bazaar-trade  in  British  manufactures 
was  so  decayed  and  sunk,  that  it  was  no  longer  worth 
attending  to;  that  what  remained  of  it  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Armenians,  who  were  now  complaining 
that  there  was  nothing  to  be  made  by  it  We 
scarcely  saw  a  bale  of  English  goods  in  the  whole 
bazaar. 

One  of  the  chief  points  for  collecting  the  produce  of 
the  valley  of  the  Maritza  was  at  Kishan,  a  healthy  town 
on  the  hills  between  Adrianople  and  the  port  of  Enos, 

with  about  5000  inhabitants.     Here  Mr.  S resided 

a  great  part  of  the  year,  and  hence  in  1846-7  he  had 
hurried  his  produce,  through  Enos,  on  board  ship  as 
quickly  as  possible.  But  many  were  the  journeys  he 
had  ta  make  through  wild  regions  and  over  no  roads  to 


■^■■wi.<  Hi*ni  ■j»niwqp»^awuippw»aiiM.^w  HI.  ■    mi  ■■■g^s^MPff 


Chap.  XXIX.  KISHAN  — MR.  WILLSHIRE.  549 

get  up  his  produce  to  Kishan  in  time.  The  operations 
of  trade  in  those  regions  were  like  the  operations  of 
war — he  might  have  gone  through  a  campaign  with  less 
risk  and  danger. 

With  gardens  in  it,  and  mulberry-grounds  and  tall- 
growing  trees  all  about  it,  Kara-Atch  was  a  pleasant 
green  village.  The  little  Frank  colony  was  the 
gentlest,  pleasantest,  most  friendly  society  we  had  met 
with  in  the  Levant;  all  its  members  seemed  to  be  near 
relations  or  closely  connected  by  marriage,  and  though 
all  were  engaged  in  trade,  jealousy  and  dissension 
seemed  to  be  unknown  among  them.  The  harmony 
was  the  more  striking  from  contrast  with  the  discord 
which  had  been  forced  upon  our  notice  at  Pera.  They 
had  a  neat  Catholic  church  in  the  village,  and  the 
privilege  of  using  church  bells;  but  I  regret  to  state 
that  the  only  quarrelling  which  had  taken  place  here 
had  arisen  between  two  Catholic  priests  from  Con- 
stantinople. 

Mr.  Willshire  had  turned  a  slovenly  Greek  country- 
house  into  a  very  pleasant  little  villa,  and  he  and  his 
family  were  setting  examples  of  neatness,  order,  and 
domestic  refinement,  which  might  be  advantageously 
followed  by  others.  Their  house,  with  English  com- 
forts, was  indeed  an  oasis.  But  for  their  own  resources 
and  indoor  pleasures  they  would  have  found  their 
residence  here  (and  in  Adrianople  it  was  worse)  irk- 
some and  altogether  insupportable.  For  many  years, 
and  until  driven  away  by  the  fanfaronnade  and  bom- 
bardment of  the  Prince  de  Joinville,  Mr.  W.  had  been 
consul  at  Mogadore,  and  several  of  his  children  had 
been  born  on  that  African  shore.    They  all  declared 


550  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

that  Mc^adore  was  incomparably  a  pleasanter  residence 
than  Adrianople,  and  that  they  had  not  seen  in  that 
part  of  the  dominions  of  the  Emperor  of  Morocco  one- 
half  of  the  misery  and  decay  which  surrounded  them 
here  in  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan. 

The  Greeks  of  the  village  had  a  church  and  a  church- 
yard, but  while  the  Frank  Catholics  were  allowed  a 
bell  they  had  none.  Among  the  Greek  tombstones  I 
found  the  grave  of  a  countryman  and  an  old  friend — 
poor  John  Kerr,  a  man  of  ability  and  acquirements, 
and  of  a  gentle,  most  friendly  heart,  who  had  been 
several  years  English  consul  at  Adrianople,  and  who 
had  perished  in  his  prime  on  the  banks  of  the  Hebrus. 
Like  his  successor  Mr.  Willshire,  he  was  deserving  of  a 
far  better  place,  and  would  have  been  a  valuable  public 
servant  where  there  was  business  to  be  done  and  national 
interests  to  attend  to. 

At  the  approach  of  the  wet  season  the  Franks  and 
all  the  Greek  respectabilities  quit  Eara-Atch  for 
Adrianople  ^  the  sandy  road  soon  becomes  flooded  and 
impassable ;  the  waters  of  the  Hebrus  overflow  a  good 
part  of  the  village,  rising  in  some  seasons  to  the  first 
floors  of  the  best  houses,  and  occasionally  washing  away, 
or  sapping  the  foundations  of,  a  house  or  two.  Then, 
for  five  or  six  months — unless  impelled  by  desperate 
business — people  remain  shut  up  in  their  cold,  wooden 
houses  at  Adrianople,  shivering  over  pans  of  charcoal, 
or  fencing  out  the  blasts  of  Bhodope  with  fiir-lined 
cloaks  and  duplicated  inner  clothing.  Mrs.  Willshire 
described  the  last  winter  as  having  been  terrific ;  hurri- 
canes of  wind  I  rain,  sleet,  and  snow  I  snow,  rain,  and 
sleet  I  deep,  long-lasting  snow  in  the  streets  of  the  city. 


Chap.  XXIX.         LADY  MARY  W.  MONTAGU.  551 

and  in  the  country  below  a  tossing,  rushing,  roaring 
inundation,  spreading  far  and  wide. 

"  Here  summer  reigns  with  one  eternal  smile ! " 

Fie!  again,  Lady  Mary.  In  this  genial  month  of 
May  we  had  worse  weather  than  in  England.  On  the 
7th  of  May  it  rained  from  morning  till  night  and  was 
very  chilly ;  on  the  8th  it  blew  great  guns,  and  that 
night,  as  the  wind  ceased,  the  snow  fell  heavily  on  the 
neighbouring  mountains,  and  some  travellers  out  in  the 
storm  lost  their  way  and  were  almost  frozen  to  death. 
As  these  wayfarers  rode  through  Kara-Atch,  in  the 
grey  of  the  morning,  they  looked  as  if  they  had  been 
travelling  in  Siberia.  It  was  quite  common  to  meet 
here  poor  men  whose  feet  had  been  frozen,  and  who 
had  been  rendered  cripples  for  life  by  the  frost.  The 
sight  was  not  uncommon  in  the  parts  of  Thrace  near  to 
Constantinople.  The  brother  of  our  Greek  host  at 
Macri-keui  had  been  thus  lamed  of  a  leg.  A  poor 
Greek  of  Kara-Atch  had  been  more  seriously  crippled : 
he  went  out  one  terrible  evening  to  look  after  some 
sheep ;  he  got  enveloped  and  bewildered  in  a  snow-drift, 
lost  his  way,  and  lay  out  all  night. 

^<  Horrida  tempestas  coelum  contraxit,  et  imbres, 

Nivesque  dedncunt  Jovem ;  nxmc  mare,  nimc  silvfld, 
Thraicio  Aquilone  sonant.** 

The  poor  fellow  was  now  going  on  crutches  and 
begging  his  bread,  his  useless  legs  looking  as  if  they 
had  been  partially  consumed  by  fire.  On  the  lOth  of 
May  the  weather  was  covered  and  cold,  with  a  few 
scorching-hot  intervals  when  the  sun  shone  out ;  and  in 
the  evening  we  had  a  tempest  of  wind  and  a  deluging 
rain. 


552  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXDC. 

On  the  morning  of  the  1  Ith  I  was  shivering  with 
cold  while  reading  Lady  Mary's  sunny  descriptions  of 
Adrianople.     Where  are  the  numerous  and  beautiful 
cypresses  of  which  her  ladyship  speaks  ?     If  they  were 
ever  here,  they  are  gone*     There  is  now  only  one  for- 
lorn cypress  in  the  whole  place.    Since  leaving  Selyvria 
we  had  seen  none  of  those  trees.     About  noon  on  this 
day  the  sun  shone  out,  and  under  a  scorching  heat  we 
walked  some  two  miles  to  the  village  of  Demir  Bash, 
famed  as  a  temporary  residence  of  Charles  XII.   of 
Sweden.     We  were  cooling  ourselves  by  the  side  of  a 
neglected,  broken  fountain,  when  all  of  a  sudden  the 
wind  changed,  the  sky  became  clouded,  and  the  air 
quite  chilly.     Then,  after  a  few  thunder-claps,  there 
was  a  heavy  fall  of  rain,  which  drove  us  for  refuge 
under  the  ruined  gateway  of  a  most  wretched  farm,  and 
thence  into  the  shop  of  a  Greek  backal,  who  purveyed 
good    raki,    of  which    some    Turks    were    profusely 
drinking.      On  the  evening  of  the  1 2th,  as  we  were 
returning  from   Adrianople   to  Kara-Atch,   we   were 
soaked  by  rain,  and  that  night  was  very  chilly.     The 
1 3th,  the   last  day  of  our  stay,  was  cloudy,  rainy, 
cold. 

We  saw  some  Greeks  working  in  the  fields  and 
mulberry  plantations,  but  they  were  working  on  their 
own  account.  All  the  hired  labourers  were  Bulgarians, 
wanting  whom  the  cultivation  (limited  as  it  is)  could 
not  be  carried  on.  Considering  the  price  of  provisions, 
the  price  of  labour  was  very  high.  The  pay  of  the 
Bulgarian  labourers  was  7h  piastres  per  day,  and  in 
shorter  days  5  piastres.  The  price  of  bread  was  only 
24  paras  the  oke  (a  little  more  than  a  penny  for  2|  lbs. 


•a,.  ,s  amar^^^m        m  ■■iia"      r»iprr-  s-*»i'i  ^w>.^^  '    -  "  ■, -V   ~  na      ,       ,  '    iT.: 


Chap.  XXIX,    CHARACTER  OF  THE  BULGARIANS.  553 

English  weight) :  the  price  of  lamb,  the  only  meaty  was 
1  piastre  27  paras  the  oke. 

-These  Bulgarians  were  rough  and  boorish,  like  all 
of  their  race  that  we  had  seen ;  they  were  capable  of 
very  hard  work,  but  they  seemed  to  me  to  be  deficient 
in  intelligence,  and  their  agricultural  implements  were 
all  of  the  rudest  and  most  awkward  description. 

As  we  did  not  go  on  to  Philippopoli  and  to  the 
country  between  that  city  and  the  Balkan  mountains, 
where  the  Slave  element  predominates,  and  where 
in  fact  the  Bulgarians  have  the  country  almost  en- 
tirely to  themselves ;  as  we  did  not  visit  the  region 
of  attar  of  roses,  or  sojourn  at  Kasanlik,  ^^  the  rose 
land,"  where  every  field  and  hill  side  is  covered  with 
rose-bushes  carefully  cultivated — ^where,  at  the  proper 
season,  you  see  little  else  than  blowing  roses  for  miles 
and  miles — where  the  fair  flowers,  with  the  morning 
dew  upon  them,  are  said  to  be  joyously  gathered  by 
fair  maidens  of  sweet  engaging  countenances,  and  of 
nyroph-like  forms  ;*  as  we  neither  saw  their  proper  dis- 
tricts nor  came  in  contact  with  any  of  the  Bulgarians, 
among  whom  civilization  was  reported  to  have  developed 
itself  of  late  years,  I  would  speak  doubtingly  and 
modestly  of  this  class  of  the  Sultan's  Bayah  subjects. 
Those  with  whom  I  spoke  on  the  subject  represented 
them  generally  as  a  laborious,  gross,  unintellectual,  un- 
imaginative people.  It  would  be  imfair  to  judge  of 
them  by  the  hinds  we  saw ;  but  where  a  peasantry  is 
not  frank  and  cheerful,  gentle  and  social,  and  averse  to 

♦  See,  more  especially,  *  Les  Slaves  de  Turquie.  Serbes,  MontAidgrins, 
Bosniaques,  Albanais,  et  Bulgares.  Leurs  Ressouroes,  leturs  Tendances  et 
leure  Progrte  Politiqnes,  par  M.  Cyprien  Robert.    Paris,  1844.* 


554  TURKEY  AND  US  DESTINT.         Chap.  XXIX. 

deeds  of  blood  and  ferocity,  it  will  generally  be  found 
that  the  classes  above  them  are  not  commendaUe  for 
amiable  qualities ;  and  the  bulk  of  the  Bulgarian  popu- 
lation is  rural,  pastoral  or  agricultural.  Of  late  years, 
however,  some  few  had  taken  to  commercial  piumiits^ 
and  these  men  had  given  a  certain  impetus  to  civiliza- 
tion and  education.  They  had  a  newspaper  printed  in 
their  Slave  dialect ;  they  procured  a  few  books,  some 
printed  in  emancipated  Servia,  and  some  at  Vienna  ; 
and  they  had  opened  a  school  here  and  there ;  but  as 
the  population  lived  for  the  far  greater  part  in  small, 
widely  scattered  hamlets,  the  progress  of  education  must 
be  very  slow.  We  never  met  a  Bulgarian  that  could 
read,  or  that  had  the  remotest  idea  of  letters.  From 
all  that  I  could  learn,  the  recent  French  theorists,  who 
have  taken  the  ^^  Bulgarian  element''  under  their  pa- 
tronage (and  who  seem  to  tl\ink  that  these  shepherds 
and  rough  labourers  ought  to  succeed  the  Turks  as 
masters,  that  the  Bulgarian  lion  ought  to  be  crowned 
again  with  his  crown  of  gold,  and  that  the  Bulgarian 
kingdom  of  the  Middle  Ages  might  be  restored  with 
far  wider  limits  and  without  its  original  ferocity),  must 
have  greatly  exaggerated  the  numbers  as  well  as  the 
virtues  of  these  people  dwelling  in  European  Turkey. 
M.  Cyprien  Robert,  among  other  bold  assertions,  sets 
down  the  Bulgarian  population  at  4,500,000.  I  doubt 
whether  it  reaches  half  or  even  a  third  of  that  number. 
The  entire  population  of  European  Turkey  falls  short  of 
7,000,000.  The  Turks  are  not  numerous,  but  the  Ar- 
menians, and  still  more  the  Greeks,  are.  Out  of  Con- 
stantinojile,  Adrianople,  Salonica,  and  a  few  other  lai^ 
towns,  one  cannot  well  use  the  word  poptdous  anywhere ; 


Chap.  XXIX.         BULGARIAN  INSURRECTION.  555 

but  all  along  lihe  line  of  coast,  and  in  every  part  where 
the  country  is  comparatively  peopled,  the  Greeks  parti- 
cularly abound,  and  the  Bulgarians,  except  as  migrator^ 
shepherds  and  farm  servants,  are  invisible.  Then  there 
is  Bosnia — then  there  are  the  four  Albanias,  and  Wal- 
lachia  and  Moldavia,  and  beyond  these  there  will 
remain  the  Israelite  element,  which  (if  not  otherwise) 
is  at  least  important  in  number.  M.  Robert  in  his  wild 
statistics  would  leave  no  room  for  all  these  classes. 

Furious  and  most  bloody  were  the  wars  the  Bul- 
garians waged  with  the  effeminate  Greek  emperors ;  but 
to  the  Turkish  Sultans  they  had  long  been  the  most 
obedient  and  contented  of  Rayahs,  the  most  submissive 
of  slaves.  But  the  visit  of  the  Russians  in  1829  put  a 
few  new  ideas  into  their  heads,  and  the  fiscal  tyranny 
had  of  late  repeatedly  roused  them  to  insurrection.  In 
1840  they  called  for  the  expulsion  of  the  insatiable 
Armenians,  who  were  monopolizing  every  branch  of 
trade,  not  excepting  even  that  of  attar  of  roses,  who 
were  establishing  maximum  prices,  farming  the  taxes 
and  plundering  the  country  in  the  name  of  the  Sublime 
Porte,  or  of  some  local  pasha.  They  also  demanded  an 
exemption  from  forced  labours,  and  from  all  avanias. 
In  the  following  spring  few  or  none  of  them  would 
come  down  to  the  low  country,  and  through  a  great  part 
of  Roumelia  farming  operations  were  stopped,  and  the 
herds  and  flocks  perished  for  want  of  their  attendance*  It 
is  said  that,  for  the  first  time,  secret  societies  were  formed 
in  Bulgaria,  and  that  twelve  priests  of  Sophia,  regarded 
as  twelve  apostles  of  religion  and  of  liberty,  travelled 
throughout  the  country,  calling  upon  the  people  to  arm^ 
and  flattering  them  with  the  hope  that  they  might  drive 


556  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

the  unbelievers  out  of  Constantinople^  and  raise  the 
altars  of  Christ  and  restore  the  Greek  church  within 
the  holy  walls  of  Saint  Sophia. 

The  smouldering  fire  was  blown  into  a  flame  by  a 
nephew  of  the  Pasha  of  Nichk,  who  stole  a  Bulgarian 
girl  from  one  of  the  villages.  Armed  only  with  clubs 
and  their  heavy  sheep-crooks,  or  agricultural  impTe-* 
nients,  the  peasants  overcame  and  massacred  a  great 
number  of  Turks,  and  then  threw  themselves  into  the 
defiles  of  the  mountain.  A  body  of  irregular  Turkish 
cavalry  was  destroyed  shortly  after  in  one  of  those 
narrow  and  difficult  passes,  and  the  fortress  of  Ak- 
Palanka  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  If  the 
war  could  have  been  maintained  a  little  longer,  the  im- 
provident, thoughtless  Turks,  must  have  been  starved 
out  of  all  their  strong  places.  But  Mustapha  Pasha 
called  down  7000  fierce  Arnaouts  from  the  mountains 
of  Albania,  and  old  Hussein  Pasha  marched  from  Yidin 
with  some  troops  of  the  Sultan's  regular  army,  and  a 
few  pieces  of  field  artillery.  The  flame  of  insurrection 
was  quenched  in  blood.  In  their  hour  of  success  the 
Bulgarians  had  shown  little  mercy ;  after  their  defeat 
they  found  none.  Whatever  might  be  the  wishes  of 
Sultan  Abdul  Medjidj  or  the  orders  of  his  government, 
the  undisciplined,  irregular  troops  could  not  be  re- 
strained. Seven  or  eight  thousand  Bulgarians,  old  and 
young,  men,  women,  and  children,  fled  into  Servia,  and 
others  found  refiige  in  Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  Since 
this  war  of  1841,  the  people  had  been  submissive  as 
before  the  outbreak ;  but  their  sullenness  was  said  to 
have  increased,  and  a  great  many  more  robberies  and 
murders  perpetrated  by  Bulgarians  have  been  heard  of. 


'^•P 


Chap.  XXIX.    M.  BLAITQUI'S  REPORT  TO  M.  GUIZOT.         557 

It  was  the  opinion  of  most  people  in  the  country  that 
in  case  of  another  invasion,  if  the  Russians  would  only 
furnish  them  with  arms,  ammunition,  and  a  few  leaders^ 
the  Bulgarians  would  rise  to  a  man,  and  would  not  fail 
to  take  a  ferocious  vengeance  for  the  cruelties  com- 
mitted by  the  Turks  seven  years  ago. 

It  was  while  reports  of  the  suiferings  of  a  Christian 
people  were  ringing  in  the  West  of  Europe  that  M. 
Guizot,  then  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  sent  Monsieur 
M.  Blanqui  on  his  mission  into  Bulgaria,  to  ascertain 
the  real  state  of  things,  and  to  assure  himself  as  to  facts 
on  the  spot  In  the  published  account  of  his  journey 
this  writer,  though  an  applauded  member  of  the  French 
Institute,  takes  such  hasty  and  superficial  views,  com- 
mits so  many  palpable  mistakes,  and  betrays  so  much 
prejudice,  that  one  can  hardly  repose  confidence  in  any- 
thing he  says.  It  appears,  however,  that  towards  the 
end  of  August,  1841,  he  found  bands  of  wild  Arnaouts, 
who  had  ravaged  the  country  with  fire  and  sword, 
still  lingering  in  various  places,  and  the  plains  of 
Nissa  and  Sophia  militarily  occupied  by  more  than 
20,000  men  of  the  Sultan's  (so  called)  regular  army, 
with  a  numerous  artillery.  Here  and  there  he  saw 
houses  burned,  fruit-trees  torn  up  by  the  roots,  and 
women  and  children  wandering  about  the  woodlands 
and  wasted  fields.  In  one  wide  district  there  was 
nothing  but  symptoms  of  terror  and  traces  of  devasta- 
tion. The  peasants  said,  *^  Give  us  arms !  If  we  had 
but  arms  and  powder,  we  would  soon  drive  these  wild 
beasts  out  of  our  woods." 

"  The  insurrection  was  suppressed,  but  terror  reigned 
in  all  hearts.     One  must  have  seen  the  sombre  despair 


558  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXIX. 

of  the  Bulgarian  peasants,  and  the  insolence  of  the 
Albanian  hordes,  to  form  an  idea  of  what  this  Christian 
population  must  have  suffered  during  this  short  and  sad 
period.  Europe,  which  takes  so  lively  an  interest  in 
the  cause  of  the  African  negroes,  is  not  sufficiently  aware 
that  there  exist  at  her  gates,  or  one  may  say  in  her 
bosom,  some  millions  of  men,  Christians  like  ourselves, 
who  are  treated  as  dogs,  in  their  quality  of  Christians, 
under  a  government  to  which  all  the  Christian  powers 
send  accredited  ambassadors  1  *' *  The  Hatti  Scheriff 
of  Gul-Khank  had  been  a  miserable  mockery  to  the 
Rayahs  of  Bulgaria ;  and  his  fiscal  regulations  and 
the  whole  of  the  finance  system  of  Reschid  Fasha 
and  his  Reform-school  had  proved,  in  action,  to  be 
more  oppressive,  more  unjust,  more  cruel  than  the 
old  system.  Instead  of  paying  once^  the  unhappy 
Rayahs  often  saw  themselves  obliged  to  pay  twice.  As 
hardly  any  of  them  knew  how  to  read  and  write,  they 
were  frequently  deceived  by  false  receipts,  wherein 
sums  and  dates  were  changed  at  the  pleasure  of  those 
who  gave  them.  Still  more  frequently  their  only 
receipt  was  a  tally,  or  piece  of  wood  cut  in  so  many 
notches.  ^^  In  fine,  it  was  still  the  ancient  system  of 
extortion  and  violence,  rendered  only  more  odious  by 
hypocrisy  and  a  perfidious  appearance  of  legality:  Here 
is  what  the  Turkish  spirit  had  made  of  the  Hatti 
Scherifl^  in  matters  of  finance — an  atrocious  deception/*  f 
I  can  take  all  this  for  unexa^erated  truth ;  for, 
wherever  we  had  been,  we  had  ample  proofs  that  such 

♦  'Voyage    en   Biilgarie  pendant  I'Ann^j  1841.      Par  M.  Blanqui, 
Membro  do  I'lnstitut  de  France.     Paris,  1843.' 
t  Ibid. 


Chap.  XXIX.  BULGABIAN  ASPIRATIONS.  559 

was  the  operation  of  the  reformed  financial  system.  In 
Asia  Minor  we  had  seen  the  system  applied  as  merci- 
lessly to  Mussulmans  as  to  Christians. 

Notwithstanding  their  unity  in  religion,  there  is  no 
similarity  of  character  and  very  little  sympathy  be- 
tween the  lively  volatile  Greeks  and  the  dull  plodding 
Bulgarians.  The  Greeks  indeed  consider  themselves 
vastly  superior,  and  look  down  upon  their  neighbours 
with  a  feeling  very  like  contempt.  If  the  two  races 
could  unite  heart  and  hand,  they  would  need  no  foreign 
assistance  in  driving  the  Turks  out  of  Europe.  But  the 
natural  tendency  of  the  Bulgarians  is  to  a  union  with 
Russia  as  the  great  Sclavonian  nation,  or  to  a  union  and 
fusion  with  tiieir  neighbours,  the  Slave  populations  of  the 
Austrian  Empire. 


560  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESITNY.  Chap.  XXX. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

Return  from  Adrianople  to  Constantinople  —  Tillage  of  Dcmir  Bash  — 
Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  ~  Great  Heat  —  Desolate  Turkish  Villages  — 
Town  of  Demotica  —  The  Acropolis,  the  ElizU-der^  and  the  Maritza  — 
Caves  and  Subterranean  Passages  —  Prison  of  Charles  XTI.  —  Tippling 
Greeks  —  The  Underground  Prison  of  Demotica  —  Romantic  Scenery 

—  Crossing  the  Hebrus  — Agriculture  —  Sad  Roads  —  Ouzoon-Keupri 

—  Whipping  to  Mosque  —  Indifference  to  Religion  —  Robbers  —  Al- 
banian Colony  at  Criza  Zaliff  —  Bulgarian  Thieves  —  No  Guardhouses 

—  Imaum  Bazaar  —  More  Desolation  —  Bulgarian  Shepherds  —  Babl^ 
Eskissi  —  Town  of  Bourgaz  —  Circumcision  Festival  —  The  Governor 
of  Bourgaz  —  Population  of  Bourgaz  —  Ruins  of  Khans,  Baths,  &c.  — 
Another  Wilderness  —  A  Tumulus  —  Albanian  Caravan  —  Village  of 
Kharisteran  —  Khan  of  Erghenfe  —  The  wild  Desert  of  Tchorlii  — 
Murder  of  Mr.  Wood  —  Civil  War  —  Gipsy  Encampment  —  Town  of 
Tchorlu  —  Poverty  of  the  Turks  —  Cherry-trees  —  Vineyards  and 
good  Wine  —  Ruinous  Restrictions  on  Trade  —  More  Ruins  and  more 
Deserts  —  The  Propontis  —  Kinikli  —  Concert  of  Frogs  —  Fann  of 
Arif  Bey  —  Fine  Corn-fields  —  Bulgarian  Labourers  —  A  Guardhouse 

—  A  Fakir  from  Hindostan  —  Reach  Selyvria  —  Temperance  Reaction 

—  Sarim  Pasha,  the  sober  Vizier  —  Case  of  Sotiri  Macri  —  Discou- 
ragement of  agricultural  Improvement  —  A  Tumulus  —  Village  of 
Pivades  —  Lower  Empire  Tower  —  A  Grerman  Pedestrian  —  Bouigaz 
on  the  Sands  —  Kalicrati  —  Buyuk  Tchekmedjeh,  or  Ponte  Grande  — 
More  Turkish  Desoktion  and  Ruins  —  A  dangerous  Pass  —  Reschid 
Pasha's  New  Khan  —  Lancers  of  the  Imperial  Guard  on  the  mardi  — 
Kutchuk  Tchekmedjeh  —  Arrive  at  San  Stefano. 

On  th6  14th  of  May,  at  10  a.m,  we  quitted  the  village 
of  Eara-Atch  to  ride  down  to  Demotica.  This  time 
our  suridjee  was  not  an  Armenian,  but  a  gipsy,  who  pro- 
fessed to  be  a  Mussulman,  but  who  never  said  a  prayer 
or  performed  an  ablution  during  the  six  days  he  was 
with  us.  His  tribe  bore  but  an  indifferent  character 
for  honesty,  but  we  found  him  honest,  attentive,  and 


Chap.  XXX.  DEMIR  BASH—CHARLES  XII.  561 

exceedingly  good-natured.  He  was  also  sober,  and 
sobriety  seemed  now  to  be  rather  a  rare  virtue  in  the 
country. 

As  &r  as  the  village  of  Demir  Bash  the  country  was 
pretty  well  cultivated  with  wheat,  oats,  rye,  and  a  little 
flax.  There  were  also  a  few  vineyards  and  some  rather 
extensive  mulberry-plantations,  with  rough,  badly  made 
inclosures.  Although  the  name  has  been  corrupted 
from  Demir  Bash,  or  "Iron-Head" — the  name  the 
Turks  bestowed  upon  the  fighting  Swede — into  Demir- 
desh  or  Demirtash,  or  "  Iron-Stone  " — the  name  given 
to  a  vast  number  of  villages  in  Europe  and  in  Asia — 
there  is  no  doubt  that  Charles  XII.  dwelt  for  some 
time  in  the  place.  Accurate  old  Pococke,  who  passed 
through  the  village  only  a  few  years  after  Charles  had 
been  released  from  captivity,  and  when  the  hero's 
name  and  adventures  were  in  every  mouth,  says, 
"  Charles  XII.,  King  of  Sweden,  resided  here  till  he 
was  removed  to  Demotica,  as  it  is  imagined  by  the  in~ 
stigation  of  his  enemies,  who,  it  is  said,  thought  that 
this  place  was  too  near  the  great  road.''  It  had  been 
a  considerable  village,  but  the  Turks  had  left  hardly 
anything  behind  them  except  a  large  cemetery,  two 
ruined  fountains,  and  one  mosque,  which  was  almost  a 
ruin.  The  few  wooden  houses  which  remained  were 
almost  entirely  inhabited  by  Greeks,  who  still  spoke  of 
the  iron-headed  Swede.  Their  traditions  were  confused 
and  not  very  conformable  to  history.  Beyond  the 
village,  between  the  hills  and  the  Hebrus,  there  is  a 
splendid  open  plain,  on  which,  according  to  their  account^ 
the  indomitable  Swede  had  fought  a  great  battle  with 

VOL.  n.  2  o 


ZLOm 


662  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.  Chap.  XXX. 

the  Turks.  There  had  been  no  such  battle,  but  in  the 
Middle  Ages  the  plain  had  been  the  scene  of  bloody 
conflicts  between  the  Bulgarians  and  the  Greeks. 

A  few  hundred  yards  beyond  Demir  Bash  the  cul- 
tivation ceased.  The  morning  had  been  cloudy,  but 
now  the  sun  shone  forth,  and  with  a  warm  south  wind 
the  weather  was  quite  oppressire.  Springy  at  last^ 
seemed  to  assert  her  full  rights ;  die  breezes  were  soft 
as  they  came  over  these  Thracian  plains,  and  the  deep 
chasms  worn  by  the  wintry  torrents  now  murmured 
geatly  widi  only  rivulete  within  Aem. 

*'  Jam  Terifl  oomites,  qtue  mare  temperant 
Impellimt  ammee  lintea  Thiadse ; 
Jam  nee  pvata  rigent,  iieo  fluYii  strepont 
HibemA  nive  turgidi." 

The  plain  was  soon  broken  by  bold  ridges,  declining, 
like  downs,  towards  the  Hebrus.  We  had  considerable 
mountabs  on  our  right,  to  the  west,  and  on  our  left  ran 
the  stately  river.  At  npon  we  stopped  at  the  Turkish 
village  of  Emirli,  which  contained  twenty  woodoi 
houses  and  huts,  a  new  little  wooden  cafinet,  an  old 
stone  mosque  in  ruins,  and  the  ruins  of  a  bath  and 
a  fountain.  Here  they  were  growing  a  good  deal  of 
millet  and  canary  seed,  and  one  or  two  of  the  Turks 
had  good  yokes  of  buffaloes.  We  remounted  at  12-30 
p.BC^  crossing  an  undulated  country  without  trees,  and 
very  like  our  English  downs.  At  2  pjtf.,  tihe  sun  being 
scorching  hot,  we  waded  a  cool  stream  and  passed 
through  a  little  Turkish  village  in  a  hollow,  called  Yell* 
Bourgazi.  Here  was  a  very  small  wooden  mosque  and 
a  few  hungry4ooking  Mussulmans  smoking  their  tchi- 


i*^*imim^^4 


Chap.  XXX.  TURKISH  VILLAGES.  663 

bouques.  At  3  p.m.,  being  on  a  lofty  ridge,  the  moun- 
tains to  the  west  opened  grandly  upon  us,  running  from 
north  to  south.  We  passed  some  pastoral  and  some 
woody  nooks,  but  the  flocks  were  few  and  not  large. 
From  one  of  these  nooks  proceeded  the  wailing  of  a 
bagpipe,  the  favourite  and  common  instrument  of  the 
Bulgariaa  shepherds.  We  saw  a  very  few  fine  cows 
and  oxen.  Fording  two  more  streams  and  crossing  two 
valleys  sprinkled  with  valonia  oak,  we  then  ascended  a 
bold  swell,  which,  on  our  left,  was  all  wooded  with 
valonia  oak.  We  could  discover  no  house,  no  hut  We 
met  only  six  persons  on  the  road,  and  these  were  all 
Christian  Rayahs.  It  has  often  been  noticed,  and 
must  always  be  felt,  that  one  of  the  strange  things  in 
travelling  through  European  Turkey  is  to  meet  with  so 
few  Turks. 

Descending  from  this  height,  and  then  ascending  a 
still  higher  ridge,  we  had  a  glorious  view  of  a  fine 
country,  which  only  wanted  wood  and  water,  and  a  little 
human  industry.  I  doubt  whether  on  our  whole  ride, 
where  the  banks  of  the  river  were  concealed  from  us, 
we  had  seen  100  acres  under  cultivation.  Now  we 
caught  a  view  of  the  towers  and  battlements  of  old 
Demotica,  with  the  Maritza  beyond,  broad  and  shining^ 
and  partly  fringed  with  trees — a  beautiful  view  and 
romantic,  if  ever  there  was  one  on  earth.  The  ruined 
fortifications  crown  a  lofty  rocky  hill,  which  rises  from 
the  plain  like  an  island.  As  we  sloped  down  we  had 
glimpses  of  the  Kizil-der^  river,  which  shaves  round  the 
rock  on  which  the  ancient  town  stands.  Coming  down 
upon  the  plain  we  had  corn-fields  on  our  left,  and  vine* 

2o2 


564  TURKEr  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Ohaf.  XXX. 

yards  on  beautiful  slopes,  and  nicely  enclosed  and  well 
managed,  on  our  right  We  were  presently  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Kizil-dere,  where  a  clattering  mill,  a 
picturesque  old  bridge,  a  cool  green  valley,  and  the 
rock,  and  towers  and  battlements,  presented  a  most 
charming  scene.  We  rode  into  Demotica  at  4  p.m. 
As  our  horses  were  fresh  and  rather  better  than  usual, 
we  had  probably  made  about  four  miles  an  hour. 

The  streets  through  which  we  passed  were  foil  of 
Greeks,  all  keeping  holiday  with  much  joviality.  Their 
women  were  sitting  out  at  the  doors,  most  of  them  being 
neatly  dressed,  and  some  of  them  very  pretty.  They 
saluted  us  as  we  passed,  wishing  that  our  happy  days 
might  be  many.  We  alighted  at  a  Greek  cafe,  and 
secured  a  very  narrow  chamber  overhead  in  which  to 
sleep.  The  first  question  put  to  us  was,  whether  we 
would  not  go  up  the  rock  and  see  the  dark  prison  where 
Charles  XII.  had  been  confined  ?  Climbing  up  steep 
streets,  where  we  saw  none  but  merry  tippling  Greeks 
and  a  few  Armenians,  we  were  soon  at  the  hill-top, 
standing  on  the  irregular  plateau  of  a  splendid  natural 
Acropolis,  which  was  still  almost  entirely  surrounded 
by  the  walls  and  massy  towers  which  the  Greeks  of  the 
Lower  Empire  had  raised  upon  far  more  ancient  found- 
ations. These  buildings  were  chiefly  of  brick — of  brick 
admirably  made  and  baked,  and  well  put  tc^ether  by 
the  bricklayers.  In  spite  of  countless  wars  and  the 
tempests  of  six  hundred  winters,  some  of  these  nobly 
placed  towers  were  still  comparatively  perfect.  Above 
and  below  there  were  dark  arched  gateways  between 
walls  of  prodigious  thickness.     There  had  been  double 


■U    "J" 


Chap.  XXX.  DBMOTICA.  565 

and  in  some  parts  treble  lines  of  these  walls,  with  pro- 
jecting towers  and  turrets  close  together,  as  at  Eutayah. 
Most  picturesque  masses  of  ruined  masonry  and  masses 
of  fallen  rock  lay  at  our  feet,  rocks  and  walls  having 
fallen  together  into  the  valley.  The  view  from  that 
Acropolis  at  sunset  was  one  of  rare  beauty  and  magnifi- 
cence. Beneath  us  the  Kizil-dere  swept  round  the  rock 
to  join,  at  a  short  mile  from  the  town,  the  broad  waters 
of  the  Hebrus,  now  glowing  like  a  river  of  gold ;  and 
afar  oS,  to  the  north,  we  could  faintly  discover  the  snow- 
covered  ridges  of  Hsemus  and  old  Bhodope. 

The  face  of  the  calcareous  rock  of  Demotica  was 
quite  honeycombed  with  caverns  and  subterraneous 
passages,  the  latter  being  blocked  up  by  stones  and  rub- 
bish. In  some  of  the  caves  we  found  Greeks  drinking 
wine  and  raki,  and  singing  out  lustily  to  the  evening 
breeze.  About  midway  down  the  rock,  and  near  a 
solidly  built  Greek  church  of  recent  date,  we  entered 
the  terrible,  undei^ound  state-prison  of  Demotica, 
where,  according  to  tradition,  the  royal  Swede  was  con- 
fined. Tradition  is  again  at  fault:  the  Turks  never 
behaved  so  barbarously  to  their  captive;  Charles  was 
lodged  in  the  town,  and,  though  attended  by  some 
Mussulman  ofBcers,  he  was  allowed  the  range  of  the 
neighbouring  country.*  As  the  prison  holes  were 
utterly  dark  and  abominably  dirty,  and  as  we  were 


♦  "  Charles  the  Twelfth  of  Sweden,"  says  Pococke,  "  lived  at  this  place 
(Demotica)  for  some  time :  I  was  informed  that  he  commonly  rode  out 
every  afternoon,  and  that  some  few  of  his  followers  who  were  given  to 
gallantry  were  ohliged  to  be  very  secret  in  those  afiairs,  the  King  having 
been  always  very  remarkable  for  the  strictest  chastity. 

»  Draggermen  (drogomana)  and  people  of  great  consideration  often  came 
to  him." 


566  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

unprovided  with  lights,  we  arranged  to  return  on  the 
morrow  morning  with  a  proper  supply  of  taUow-candles. 
We  found  our  coffee-house  crowded  with  tippling 
Greeks,  who  were  very  noisy,  but  not  at  all  unciviL 
Yorghi  procured  us  some  lamb,  a  rice-pila£^  yaourt, 
and  some  black  olives*  The  last  (of  which  there  was 
a  great  consumption)  must  all  have  been  imported,  for 
since  leaving  Constantinople  we  had  not  seen  a  single 
olive-tree.*  The  wine  of  Demotica,  like  that  we  had 
drunk  at  Adrianople,  was  very  good.  It  cost  less  than 
a  penny  a  quart,  and  was  certainly  a  great  deal  better 
than  most  of  the  wine  sold  in  England  at  an  extravagant 
price  under  the  name  of  claret  or  Bordeaux.  Even 
with  their  miserable  rafts  it  might  easily  be  floated 
down  the  Kizil-dere  and  the  Hebrus  to  the  port  of 
Enos,  where  it  might  be  embarked  for  foreign  exporta- 
tion, or  whence  it  might  be  sent  up  to  Constantinople. 
But  exportation  and  even  production  were  discouraged 
by  the  fiscal  tyranny.  A  man  could  not  send  a  barrel 
of  wine  out  of  the  town  without  being  called  upon  for  a 
duty :  on  the  river  a  transit  duty  was  always  demanded ; 
and  then,  before  shipment,  another  duty  must  be  paid 
at  Enos.  The  Greeks  had  given  up  the  trade  and  all 
thoughts  about  it  They  sometimes  sold  a  little  of 
their  wine  in  the  neighbourhood ;  but  if  they  sent  it  to 
any  distance,  the  expense  of  the  land*carriage  ate  up 
all  the  profit. 

*  M.  Blanqui  talks  of  villages  snrromided  with  olive-groyes  and  vine* 
yards,  on  the  coast  of  the  Propontis  between  Selyvria  and  Constantinc^le. 
There  is  not  an  olive-tree  there.  Close  to  Constantinople,  almost  under 
the  Seven  Towers,  there  are,  indeed,  a  few  miserable  olive-trees  which 
have  given  its  name  to  the  spot  whereon  they  have  bnilt  the  Sultan^ 
grand  manufactory — Zeitonn  Boumu,  or  "  Olive  Point." 


m  —^^MMV^F^Vi 


Chap.  XXX.  PRISON  AT  DBMOTICA.  567 

Quitting  our  coffee-house,  we  went  to  the  tchardhy, 
and  bought  some  candles  to  see  the  subterranean  prison 
— "  La  fameuse  prison  de  Demotica^"  says  M.  Blanqui, 
"  oil  tant  de  malheureux  ont  pSri^  et  qui  posside  en 
Turquie  une  reputation  aussi  dnistre  que  les  plombs  de 
Venise.'*    Yesterday  evening,  without  the  aid  of  candle- 
light, we  had  seen  quite  enough  to  convince  us  that 
this  member  of  the   Institut  had  been  indulging  the 
Victor  Hugo  or  picturesque-and-romantic  part  of  his 
imagination.     Instead  of  being  inaccessible,  and  so  her- 
metically closed  that  not  even  the  instances  of  ^^  notre 
ambassadeur  "  could  procure  admission,  the  place  was, 
and  for  many  years  had  been,  open  to  anybody.     In  the 
outer  and  upper  apartment  we  found  some  Greek  boys 
]daying  at  an  ancient,  primitive  game  of  pitch  and  toss, 
with  lamb-shanks  and  knuckle-bones.     The  doors  had 
been  broken  down  and  burned  long  ago ;  there  was  not 
a  fastening  left.     Instead  of  being  an  ^'  affreuee  Bob- 
tiUe^**  the  prison  was  merely  a  narrow,  dirty  cavern — a 
hole  in  the  rock,  an  abominable  hole  for  any  men  to 
live  in,  but  still  only  a  hole,  and  utterly  devoid  of 
romantic  features.    There  were  three  very  small  rooms, 
and  a  little  lower  down  (but  at  no  depth)  there  was  a 
narrow  black  dungeon  scarcely  larger  than  the  vestry  of 
one  of  our  old  country  churches.   According  to  a  Greek 
of  the  town,  who  was  our  guide,  the  last  persons  con- 
fined here  were  some  half-dozen  of  Frenchmen,  who 
had  been  captured  during  Bonaparte's  campaign  in 
Egypt  (in  1799),  and  certainly  the  only  indications  we 
could  find  of  captives  in  the  dungeon  were  firagments  of 
French  words  and  sentences^  candle-smoked  on  the 
rocky  roof.   These  smoke-inscriptions  had  been  affected 


568  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTIKY.  Chap.  XXX- 

by  the  damp,  and  battered  with  stones ;  most  of  them 
appeared  to  have  been  only  the  names  and  samames  of 
&e  mifortunate  men ;  the  longest  and  most  perfect 
stood  thus : — 

••••    8»    l»*»    Helas  •  •  • 

VlHGT  •   •    •      SoUfr-OFFiCiSB  DB  FbANCK   •    *   ♦ 
DANB   •   *   •   AFFRJCUX  •    *    • 

As  for  M.  Blanqui's  ^^  fameux  pmaards  h  la  manihre 
Peraane^  et  les  crocs  iniSrieurs  sur  lesquek  on  pr^cipitait 
les  victimesy^  there  vas  nothing  of  the  sort,  nor  had 
there  ever  been.  There  was  a  well,  descending  below 
the  level  of  the  Kizil-dere  river,  but  it  had  long  been 
choked  up  with  stones  to  the  mouth,  so  long,  that  tradi- 
tion had  taken  hold  of  it,  reporting  that  a  mi^ty 
strong  man,  as  a  trial  of  strength  and  agility,  had  filled 
up  the  deep  well  with  those  great  stones  in  a  single 
night  M.  Blanqui  does  not  pretend  to  have  visited 
the  spot ;  he  only  pretends  that,  in  order  to  draw  up 
his  ^  Beport  upon  Turkish  Prisons '  for  Monsieur  le 
Ministre  de  ITnterieur,  he  was  very  desirous  of  visiting 
it^  and  that  he  was  prevented  by  the  Turks*  This  is 
absolute  nonsense,  and  something  worse.  The  member 
of  the  Institut  did  not  like  the  journey,  and,  thinking 
it  necessary  to  say  something  about  a  noted  place,  he 
drew  upon  his  fancy  for  his  facts.  No  Turk  or  Bayah 
could  have  told  him  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
visit  ^^  cette  affreuse  Bastille  ;"*  no  application  to  the 
Porte,  no  firman  was  necessary  to  see  a  hole  open  to 
everybody.  Verily,  among  their  literary  missionnaires 
the  govermnent  of  Louis-Philippe  did  rather  firequently 
employ  men  strangely  indifferent  to  truth  and  careless 
of  research  I 


>— IW 


Chap.  XXX.  CROSSING  THE  HBBRUS.  569 

On  the  whole,  this  Demotica  was  one  of  the  most 
interesting  places  we  saw  in  Turkey.  It  produces  a 
considerable  quantity  of  silk,  which  is  sent  to  Adria- 
nople.  The  entire  population  of  the  present  town, 
though  said  to  be  a  great  deal  more,  is  probably  rather 
under  than  above  5000.  There  was  a  Frank  hekim, 
an  Italian  practitioner  in  the  town,  but  as,  contrary  to 
the  usage  of  such  men,  he  kept  out  of  our  way,  we 
could  put  no  questions  to  him. 

At  8  A.M.  we  mounted  our  horses  for  Ouzoon-Keupri. 
We  now  found  that  Hme  Turks  occupied  the  low  and 
unhealthy  part  of  Demotica  towards  the  rivers  and 
marshes,  as  they  do  at  Selyvria,  and  indeed  almost 
everywhere  else.  They  are  too  lazy  to  ascend  a  steep 
hill.  In  a  small  school-room  near  an  old  mosque  a 
number  of  children  were  humming  passages  of  the 
Koran.  Below  the  town,  moored  to  the  left  bank  of  the 
Kizil-dere,  we  saw  two  Greek  boats  from  the  island  of 
Scio  loaded  with  lemons  and  citrons,  and  another  cu- 
rious boat  full  of  rude  Turkish  crockery.  They  were 
in  a  great  hurry  to  unload  and  be  off;  if  they  were  not 
gone  soon,  there  would  not  be  water  enough  in  the 
Hebrus  to  float  them  down  to  the  sea.  We  passed  some 
extensive  and  well  managed  mulberry-plantations,  and 
then  came  to  underwoods  and  broad  marshes,  forming 
another  foyer  of  disease,  and  being  difficult  to  pass  with- 
out a  guide.  A  slow  ride  of  half  an  hour  brought  us  to 
the  right  bank  of  the  Hebrus,  a  few  hundred  yards 
above  the  confluence  of  the  Kizil-dere.  At  this  season, 
and  at  this  spot,  the  Hebrus  was  as  broad  as  the  Thames 
at  Battersea  Bridge.  We  had  to  wait  some  time  for 
the  Turkish  ferry-boat,  or  a  huge  heavy  awkward  raft 


570  TdRKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Qur.  XXX. 

which  did  ibe  duty  of  cmei  and  whidi  was  propelled  by 
long  poles.  We  crossed  with  four  horses^  four  oxen, 
two  mules^  and  seven  Turks,  the  water  being  nowhere 
deep.  Here  and  there  the  banks  of  the  river  were 
prettily  willowed.  It  was  9  AJtf.  before  we  remounted. 
Here  was  some  of  the  best  agriculture  which  the  valley 
of  the  Maritza  had  to  show ;  but  I  was  again  astonished 
at  the  narrow  extent  of  it  For  about  a  mile  we  rode 
up  the  left  bank,  most  pleasantly  refreshed  by  a  cool 
breeze  from  the  broad  waters.  We  then  struck  across 
a  fine  champaign,  a  splendid  alluvial  flat,  where  half  of 
the  rich  soil  was  under  cultivation  and  producing  mag- 
nificent crops  of  wheat  But  we  crossed  this  narrow 
belt  in  half  an  hour,  and  then  came  again  to  the  wilder- 
ness. Crossing  another  ridge,  we  then  descended  into 
the  broad  green  valley  of  the  Emii^hene-deressi,  where 
a  few  sheep  and  decent  looking  cattle  were  grazing  on 
another  alluvial  flat  This  valley,  flanked  by  tall  hills, 
is  traversed  lengthways  by  a  river  (the  same  we  had 
crossed  in  coming  from  Rodostb),  which  swells  in  the 
wet  season  and  lays  neariy  the  whole  of  it  under  water. 
The  soil  was  as  flat  and  as  green  as  a  new  billiard-table. 
The  valley  was  crossed  by  a  low  stone  bridge,  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  long ;  it  is  called  the  ^'  Long 
Bridge** — Ouzoon-Keupri — and  gives  its  name  to  the 
town.  We  counted  174  arches,  only  three  or  four  of 
which  had  water  under  them  at  tiiis  season.  The 
bridge,  of  a  very  rude  and  Turkish  construction,  was 
said  to  have  been  built  by  Sultan  Murad :  at  its  upper 
end  there  was  a  Turkish  water-mill  on  either  side ;  the 
town  was  at  the  other  end.  We  passed  a  lai^e  khan, 
now  in  ruins,  also  said  to  have  been  built  by  Sultan 


Chap.  XXX.  WHIPPING  TO  MOSQUE.  571 

Murad ;  and  we  dismounted  at  a  cafinet  as  the  muezzin 
was  calling  to  noonday  prayer.  Even  in  this  rural 
district  hardly  a  man  among  the  faitfaftd  attended  die 
call ;  out  of  a  crowd  of  Turks  that  were  smoking  round 
about  the  coffee-house,  not  one  laid  aside  his  pipe  or 
rose  to  perform  his  devotions. 

Sultan  Mahmoud,  who  had  himself  openly  infringed 
all  the  laws  of  the  Prophet,  and  who^  by  his  violent 
changes,  had  given  deadly  blows  to  the  religious  feelings 
of  tiie  people,  had  some  compunctious  visitings  in  his 
latter  years,  and  took  summary  measures  to  bring 
about,  or  force  on,  a  religious  ^^  revival.**  During  the 
month  of  January,  1837}  a  royal  order  was  issued  at 
Constantinople  and  proclaimed  through  the  streets,  re* 
quiring  all  trae  Mussulmans  to  perform  their  devotions 
regularly,  and  in  the  mosques.  This  order  was  so  far 
an  innovation,  as  it  is  a  privilege  granted  by  the  reli- 
gion that  the  Mossiilman  may  offer  the  stated  prayers 
in  the  mosque  or  elsewhere,  at  his  pleasure  or  conve- 
nience. The  new  regulation  was  of  course,  intended  to 
arrest  the  growing  neglect  of  this  most  sacred  duty. 
The  Oulema,  who  had  urged  on  die  Sultan,  thus  gave 
the  strongest  proof  of  Iheir  own  conviction  that  there 
was  a  decline  in  all  the  observances  of  Islam  I  This 
was  die  common  belief  in  1837,  and  we  found  that  it 
was  almost  universal  in  1847-8.  Mahmoud's  edict 
would  have  been  nothing  without  a  penalty  attached  to 
its  violation — ^the  disobedient  were  forcibly  carried  to 
the  courtyards  of  die  mosque,  and  were  there  soundly 
bastinadoed.  This  had  the  desired  effect ;  the  lost  de* 
vodon  of  thousands  suddenly  returned ;  the  mosques 
were  again  crowded,  and  the  stalls  of  Mussulmans  in 


572  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

the  bazaars  were  deserted  at  die  hours  of  prayer.  But 
all  this  devotion  was  very  short  lived ;  the  government 
forgot  the  edict,  and  when  their  cavasses  left  off  basti- 
nadoing, the  people  left  off  going  to  prayers.  ^^  On  my 
return  to  Constantinople  in  1838/'  says  Bishop  South- 
gate,  *^  the  law  was  still  in  force,  though  the  multitude 
were  gradually  reverting  to  iheir  old  habits.  Tet  I  re- 
member one  day  seeing  a  cavass  walking  through  the 
bazaars  at  the  hour  of  prayer  with  a  whip  in  his  hand, 
rousing  the  Turks  as  he  passed,  and  driving  them  off  to 
the  mosques.  In  the  mean  time  I  was  curious  to  know 
whether  it  had  been  promulgated  elsewhere,  and  made 
inquiries  for  it  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom.  I  found 
that  it  had  been  everywhere  proclaimed,  and  heard 
various  comments  upon  it  in  different  quarters.  An 
old  Turk  at  Baibout,  to  whom  I  applied  for  informa- 
tion, bore  a  high  testimony  to  the  religious  character  of 
his  townsmen.  *  There  is  no  need  of  such  orders  here,' 
he  said,  ^for  we  all  go  to  mosque  five  times  a-day.' 
His  boast  led  me  to  observe  how  far  his  own  practice 
was  conformable,  and  I  noticed  that  during  the  day 
which  I  spent  there,  he  did  not  perform  his  devotions 
at  any  one  of  the  prescribed  hours.  Whether  his  testi- 
mony respecting  others  was  any  more  veracious,  I 
cannot  tell,  farther  than  that  I  passed  the  day  among 
them,  and  saw  no  one  at  his  prayers."  * 

Were  there  some  other  belief  taking  the  place  of  the 
old  one,  were  there  other  religious  observances  substi- 
tuted for  those  of  the  Koran,  this  decay  of  Islam  might 
be  matter  of  congratulation ;  but  as  far  as  I  could  dis- 

•  •  Narrative  of  a  Tour  thpough  ArmeniAy  Kurdistan,  Penia,  and 
Mesopotamia,*  vol.  L  p.  169.    New  York,  1840. 


Chap.  XXX.  OUZOON-KEUPRI.  573 

cover,  Mahometanism  was  only  giving  way  to  a  thorough 
and  heartless  infidelity.  This  was  also  the  impression 
of  Bishop  Southgate,  of  Mr.  William  J.  Hamilton,  and 
I  may  say  of  nearly  every  recent  traveller  that  had  paid 
any  attention  to  the  subject.  "The  Turks,"  says  Mr. 
Hamilton^  "are  now  in  a  sad  predicament,  and  the 
only  religious  change  they  are  likely  to  undergo  is  from 
Mahornetanism  to  atheism :  it  has  been  frequently  re- 
marked in  various  parts  of  Turkey,  that  those  who  have 
been  the  most  eager  supporters  of  the  reform  measures 
of  Sultan  Mahmoud,  are  bad  Mahometans,  and  careless 
observers  even  of  the  outward  forms  of  their  religion  ; 
but  in  this  they  have  made  no  step  towards  the  truths 
of  Christianity,  and  have  only  changed  the  precise  for- 
malities of  Mahometanism  for  the  vague  uncertainties 
of  scepticism.**  *  Among  the  Turks  in  Europe  we  were 
often  struck  with  their  mutual  distrust— a  sure  proof 
of  decaying  honesty.  The  man  who  believed  nothing 
himself,  would  not  trust  another  man,  because  he  knew 
he  had  no  religious  belief  But  one  need  not  travel 
to  Turkey  to  discover  this  feeling  and  the  consequences 
which  result  from  it. 

This  town  of  Ouzoon-Keupri  numbered  about  600 
houses,  of  which  above  200  were  Greek ;  there  were  no 
Armenians,  but  the  Mahometanized  gipsies  were  rather 
numerous,  and  there  were  a  few  resident  Bulgarians^ 
who  were  cultivating  some  very  fine  corn-lands.  The 
mudir  of  the  town  seemed  to  take  a  very  lively  interest 
in  our  safety;  he  said  that  the  whole  of  the  country 
between  this  valley  and  Babk-Eskissi,  on  the  high  road, 
was  wild  and  desolate,  and  much  frequented  by  Bulga- 

*  *  Researches  in  Ama  Minor,  Pontus,  and  Armenia,'  vol.  i.  p.  366. 


574  TURKEY  AOT)  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

rian  tibieves.  According  to  his  account  all  the  thieves 
in  Boumelia  were  either  Bavarians  or  AmaoutB ;  there 
might  be  a  Greek  robber  now  and  then,  but  he  would 
not  admit  that  any  Osmanlee  ever  took  to  the  road. 
We  could  have  got  up  an  argument  on  this  last  point, 
but  it  would  have  been  impolite  and  very  useless.  He 
reconunended  that  we  should  take  one  of  his  zaptias  or 
irregular  guards  with  us:  we  did  not  think  that  one 
fellow,  mounted  on  a  lame  horse,  and  with  one  bad 
pistol  and  a  long  knife  in  his  girdle,  would  add  very 
much  to  our  security;  but  as  our  suridjee  had  never 
travelled  by  these  out-of-tiie-way  tracks,  and  confessed 
that  he  might  very  probably  mislead  us,  we  thanked  the 
mudir  and  took  his  guard.  At  3  fm.  we  mounted 
for  Griza  2ialifi^  an  Amaout  or  Albanian  village,  where 
we  intended  to  pass  the  night  We  recrossed  the  long 
bridge,  our  horses  making  a  fearM  clatter  on  the  rough 
irregular  stones.  Turning  round  to  our  right  by  one 
of  the  water-mills,  we  passed  a  few  fine  corn-fields,  and 
then  got  into  a  most  scrubby  country — a  perfect  wilder- 
ness, abounding  in  brushwood  and  in  deep  gullies  cut 
by  the  winter  rains.  In  about  an  hour  and  a  half  we 
had  a  large  village,  called  Yeni-keui,  on  our  right  hand, 
but  at  a  considerable  distance.  At  6  p.m.  we  drew  rein 
in  Crixa  Zaliff,  a  pretty,  prosperous  looking  village, 
seated  on  a  gentle  ^inence  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  vine- 
yard. The  Greek  cross  on  the  top  of  a  little  church, 
and  other  indication,  told  us  liiat  we  were  among  a 
Christian  people.  Women  were  working  in  the  vine- 
yards, or  bustling  about  with  unveiled  fiices^  and  Ae 
village  absolutely  swarrned  with  children.  Prettily  and 
pictoresquely  grouped  together  there  were  about  320 


Chap.  XXX.    GBIZA-ZALIFF— ALBANIAN  COLONIES.  575 

houses  or  cotts^es,  presenting  an  air  of  solidity  and  corn- 
fort  which  we  had  seen  nowhere  else  in  the  country. 
The  cottage  in  which  we  took  up  our  quarters,  though 
small,  was  as  neat,  clean,  and  comfortable  as  could  be 
desired.  Within  and  without,  the  walls,  built  of  stone 
and  plastered,  were  whitewashed ;  the  roof  was  excel- 
lently, thatched,  and  in  front  of  the  door  was  a  pleasant 
open  portico,  where  the  family  always  slept  in  the  warm 
season.  According  to  their  own  account,  these  Alba- 
nian Christians  had  been  settied  here  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years.  On  the  other  side  of  Ouzoon-Keupri  there 
were  two  other  Christian  colonies  of  ihe  same  stock — 
Ibrik-Tepe,  containing  200  houses,  and  Alteun-Tash 
with  150  houses.  Those  villagers  devoted  themselves 
entirely  to  the  cultivation  of  com,  sesame,  and  flax : 
the  people  of  Criza-Zaliff  only  grew  corn  enough  for 
their  own  use,  a  littie  sesame  and  cotton,  tiieir  chief  in- 
dustry being  the  careful  cultivation  of  the  vine  and  the 
making  of  wine  and  raki,  of  which  they  sold  large 
quantities  to  the  Albanians  of  the  two  other  villages, 
and  to  the  Greeks  of  Ou2oon-Keupri  and  other  neigh- 
bouring places.  Their  wine  was  very  good,  and  tiieir 
vineyards  were  well  entrenched  and  carefully  and  neatiy 
managed.  The  movement,  tiie  industry  of  these  ener* 
getic  people  was  quite  a  reviving  sight  There  were 
no  rags  and  tatters  here;  men,  women,  and  children 
were  all  well  dressed ;  tiie  costume  of  the  women  was 
quite  pretty.  They  wore  clean,  strong  cotton  aprons, 
gracefiiUy  embroidered  with  worsteds  of  different  colours, 
and  other  parts  of  their  dress  were  ornamented  in  the 
same  manner.  They  seemed  all  busy,  contented,  and 
tiirivtng ;  and  though  somewhat  bashful  before  strangers, 


576  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

they  were  evidently  free  and  merry  enough  among 
themselves.  Every  cottage  into  which  we  looked  was 
as  clean  and  orderly  as  our  own  quarters.  We  could 
scarcely  fancy  ourselves  in  Turkey ;  except  in  the  Cos- 
sack village  on  Lake  Magnass,  we  had  seen  no&ing  like 
this  order  and  admirable  housewifery. 

The  people  themselves  complained  of  being  oppressed 
by  the  Turks  and  dealt  with  in  a  very  unfair  manner 
by  the  ushurjees.  They  had  trusted  to  themselves  for 
their  defence  against  irregular  marauders  and  profes- 
sional thieves;  even  in  the  winter-time  most  of  the 
men  lay  out  by  night  in  the  porticos  of  their  houses 
with  guns  by  their  sides ;  but  this  year  the  Fasha  of 
Adrianople  had  made  a  great  stir  for  carrying  into 
effect  the  disarming  order  of  the  Sultan,  and  they  had 
been  obliged  to  conceal  their  weapons. 

They  were  now  afraid  to  let  their  children  stray 
out  of  sight,  and  the  cows  and  sheep  that  were 
mainly  tended  by  the  boys,  instead  of  being  allowed  a 
wide  range  over  the  downs,  were  all  kept  in  a  valley 
close  to  home, — ^as  green  and  pleasant  and  pastoral  a 
valley  as  eye  could  behold,  with  a  clear,  cool  stream 
running  through  it  These  good  people,  like  all  tiiie 
rest,  were  annually  paying  a  tax  to  Grovemment  for  the 
rural  guard ;  but  in  all  these  wilds  there  was  no  dervent 
— there  was  no  guard  at  all  where  many  were  needed  • 
the  idling  irregulars  and  police-agents  kept  wholly  in 
the  towns :  since  leaving  Selyvria  we  had  nowhere  seen 
one  of  those  guard-houses  which  occurred  rather  fre- 
quently in  Asia  Minor. 

On  Tuesday,  the  16th  of  May,  we  were  in  the  saddle 
at  7  o*clock.     We  left  the  good  people  quite  charmed 


Chap.  XXX.         VILLAGE  OP  IMAUM-BAZAAR.  577 

with  their  cleanliness.  The  pleasant  valley  was  covered 
with  flocks  and  herds,  and  beyond  it  were  some  good 
fields  of  corn  and  millet.  For  a  short  way  the  country 
was  dotted  with  trees  and  copses.  Innumerable  larks 
were  singing  in  the  bright  blue  sky,  and  the  voice  of 
the  cuckoo,  which  we  had  scarcely  heard  in  Europe,  or 
since  our  excursion  to  Nicomedia,  was  ringing  on  every 
side.  Between  broad  downs,  from  300  to  400  feet  in 
height,  there  were  narrow  valleys,  with  rivulets  or  with 
swamps  that  were  not  always  easy  to  cross.  The  downs 
were  covered  with  sweet,  short  pasture,  abounding  in 
aromatic  herbs,  and  both  downs  and  valleys  were  be- 
sprent with  bright  and  beautiful  wild  flowers.  Some  of 
the  hollows  were  completely  carpeted  with  .crocuses  of 
a  soft  lilac  hue. 

At  8.50  A.M.  we  forded  a  rapid  and  rather  deep 
stream,  and  in  another  half-hour  we  entered  the  un- 
healthy desolate  village  of  Imaimi-Bazaar,  which  has  a 
terrible  morass  right  in  front,  wherein  the  loud-voiced 
frogs  were  making  a  deafening  concert  At  the  en- 
trance of  the  village  there  was  a  deserted  and  utterly 
ruined  mosque,  and  some  fine  tall  trees,  which  gave  an 
aspect  of  beauty  to  the  forlorn  place.  From  nearly 
200,  the  houses  had  decreased  to  22 :  these  were  all 
occupied  by  Greeks ;  not  the  shadow  of  a  Turk  was 
left.  The  guard  frirnished  by  the  mudir  of  Ouzoon- 
Keupri  had  thought  proper  to  leave  us  at  Criza  Zalifl^, 
and  we  had  taken  one  of  the  Albanians  of  that  village 
as  a  guide.  He  was  rather  a  fierce  and  robber-looking 
fellow,  but  a  staunch  and  zealous  son  of  the  Greek 
Church.  "  As  that  mosque  has  tumbled  to  pieces," 
said  he,  **  so  will  the  infidels  fall.     There  was  no  Cross 

VOL.  IL  2  p 


578  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX 

here;  they  allowed  of  none;  and  where  the  Cross  is 
not^  men  cannot  thrive  ! ''  An  old  Greek  woman,  who 
was  walking  up  and  down  spinning  with  the  distafi^ 
which  has  not  been  altered  since  the  days  of  Homer, 
devoutly  echoed  our  Arnaout's  sentiment 

At  noon  we  came  in  sight  of  the  taU  tumulus  already 
mentioned,  but  it  took  us  another  good  hour  to  reach 
the  town  of  Babk*Eskissi.  As  usual,  we  had  scarcely 
met  a  human  being  on  the  road.  Near  the  town  we 
passed  three  or  four  Bulgarian  shepherds,  with  their 
pastoral  and  truly  classical  crooks  in  hand ;  but  knowing 
the  uses  to  which  some  of  them  applied  the  bucolic 
stafl^  we  had  no  inclination  to  linger  among  the  ^'  gentil 
pastori." 

At  2.15  P.M.  we  remounted.  We  were  now  on  the 
high  road,  but  the  loneliness  continued  much  as  before. 
At  6  P.M.,  when  our  spirits  were  quite  oppressed  by  all 
this  waste  and  solitude,  we  came  to  a  ridge,  and  had  a 
close  view  of  the  town  of  Bourgaz,  the  outer  aspect  of 
which  is  quite  enchanting,  tall  poplars  growing  among 
tall  white  minarets,  and  planes  and  other  trees  being 
mixed  with  the  mosques  and  houses,  two  twin  tumuli 
rising  in  the  rear,  and  green  fields  and  sloping  downs 
lying  all  round.  We  took  up  our  quarters  at  the 
slovenly,  tottering,  wooden  khan,  which  now  did  duty 
for  the  splendid  old  khans,  which  had  been  allowed  to 
fall  into  decay,  like  those  at  Khavsk.  There  was  a 
grand  tom-tomming  and  piping  in  the  town,  and  a 
number  of  Turkish  wrestlers,  in  sheep-skin  leather 
breeches  saturated  with  oil,  were  collected  in  the  khan, 
and  were  our  fellow-lodgers  for  the  night.  A  circum- 
cision festival  had  begun  to-day ;  and  to-morrow  there 


LiBiMa^a^BftMBM^MPH^feHMHJ^Bfti^BBW0fnHHM^SflHHMMBHKHMI 


Chap.  XXX.  BOURGAZ.  579 

would  be  joy  in  Bourgaz  town,  for  young  Rifet,  son  of 
Halil,  the  chief  of  the  police,  was  to  be  circumcised, 
with  nine  other  boys. 

On  the  following  morning  we  visited  the  mudir  or 
governor,  a  hard-smoking,  moody  man,  who  had  for- 
merly been  a  kapoudjee  or  door-keeper  at  the  Sultan's 
palace.  He  showed  his  disrespect  by  giving  us  coffee 
without  pipes.  This  Salih  Aghk,  who  told  us  that 
there  was  no  money  to  be  made  now-a-days,  and  that  it 
was  better  to  be  a  kapoudjee  than  a  mudir,  had  a  host 
of  idle  retainers  in  his  konack.  To  our  remarks  about 
the  insecurity  of  the  roads,  he  replied  with  Baccalums 
and  Inshallahs. 

The  town  of  Bourgaz  now  contains  about  1000 
houses,  of  which  about  400  are  Turkish,  570  Greek, 
and  30  Jewish.  There  were  also  a  few  Armenian 
traders  living  in  khans.  There  were  three  mosques, 
the  principal  being  a  very  beautiful  edifice  with  a 
medresseh,  a  tourbe,  baths,  and  a  stately  khan  attached, 
as  at  Khavsk.  Everything  had  been  most  solidly  built 
of  hewn  stone,  but,  except  the  mosque,  all  was  in  ruins, 
or  on  the  verge  of  ruin.  All  this  devastation  could  not 
have  been  the  work  of  time  and  the  seasons :  in  several 
places  there  was  evidence  that  violence  had  been  em- 
ployed ;  the  country  around  was  repeatedly  the  scene  of 
civil  war  among  the  Turks  at  the  end  of  the  last  and 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  as  late  as  the 
year  1812  one  Delhi  Katri,  with  a  band  of  4000  or  5000 
robbers,  held  Bourgaz,  and  committed  the  most  horrible 
excesses.  Some  of  the  rents  must  have  been  made  by 
cannon  or  by  gunpowder  employed  in  mines:  there 
were  arches  and  domed  roois  that  would  have  stood  for 

2p2 


580  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

ever  if  undisturbed  by  man.  The  people  of  the  town 
assigned  all  these  goodly  edifices  to  the  great  Ibrahim- 
Khan-Oglou-Mehemet  Pasha,  whom  they  represented 
as  having  been  a  favourite  and  Grand  Vizier  of  Sulei- 
man the  Magnificent  Becently  they  had  been  knocking 
down  some  of  the  walls  and  using  the  materials  to  make 
a  causeway  across  a  bog.  The  medresseh  was  void  of 
students,  but  in  a  miserable  comer  of  it  they  had  fitted 
up  a  room  for  a  common  school.  An  old  Turk,  who 
accompanied  us  in  our  perambulations  among  the  ruins, 
said  that  the  Government  had  eaten  up  all  the  property 
of  the  college  long  ago,  and  that  since  the  vakou&  had 
been  invaded,  every  establishment  had  fallen  to  pieces. 
This  spoliation  is  no  secret ;  every  Mussulman  in  the 
country  knew  that  mosques  and  medressehs  had  been 
robbed,  and  very  few  of  them  hesitated  to  say  so. 

At  2.30  P.M.  we  resumed  our  journey  towards  Sc- 
lyvria,  plunging  into  the  desert  as  soon  as  we  crossed 
the  corn-fields  of  Bourgaz.  At  3.15  we  shouldered 
another  tall  tumulus.  The  scorching  heat  had  again 
given  way  to  a  chilling  cold,  and  a  northerly  gale 
coming  over  the  mountains  of  Kirk-Klissia  and  Visa, 
accompanied  us  from  the  tumulus  on  the  heath  to  the 
slightly  built  wooden  khan  in  which  we  were  to  sleep, 
blowing  at  times  as  if  it  would  blow  us  out  of  our 
saddles.  M.  Blanqui  came  to  some  indisputable  conclu* 
sions : — "  La  premihre  condition  pour  voyager  dans  ce 
pays  est  de  se  Men  porter  et  de  tout  porter  avec  soiJ*  * 
We  carried  nothing  with  us,  trusting  to  such  supplies  as 
the  villages  and  khans  in  the  desert  might  offer,  but  we 
were  happily  in  very  good  health,  and  suffered  nothing 

*  '  Voyage  en  Bulgarie.' 


•v^ 


Chap,  XXX.  VILLAGE  OF  KHARISTERAN.  581 

but  a  little  temporary  annoyance  from  these  sudden 
changes  of  atmosphere  and  from  rude  fare  and  lodgings. 
We  met  a  very  long  caravan  of  Mussulman  Albanians 
returning  to  their  homes,  all  armed  with  muskets  or 
pistols  and  yataghans,  and  very  savage  in  their  looks ; 
and  these  were  the  only  people  we  saw  between  Bourgaz 
and  Eharisteran,  where  we  arrived  at  6.30  p.M-  A 
broad  stream,  which  we  crossed  by  a  rough  stone  bridge, 
ran  in  front  of  this  ruinous  Turkish  village :  the  cafinet, 
built  by  the  diligence  speculators,  was  quite  new  and 
detached  from  the  village,  having  at  its  side  a  backal's 
shop  kept  by  a  Greek,  and  a  long  magazine  or  ware- 
house. Kharisteran  now  counted  only  60  houses. 
Another  small  village,  occupied  entirely  by  Greeks, 
lay  a  little  to  the  north. 

On  Thursday,  the  1 8th  of  May,  we  were  up  at 
sunrise,  but  the  cafejee  had  already  kindled  his  charcoal 
fire,  and  divers  old  Turks  were  toddling  in  from  the 
village  to  take  their  tiny  morning  cup  and  smoke  their 
first  tchibouque. 

We  mounted  at  6  a.m.,  upon  the  most  monotonous 
ride  that  we  had  yet  had.  We  passed  a  few  patches 
of  oats,  sesame,  and  flax — the  flax  being  now  in  flower 
and  looking  beautiiul  to  the  eye —but  this  slight  culti- 
vation presently  ceased. 

At  9  A.M.  we  dismounted  at  another  new  and  ra&er 
large  khan,  built  in  a  lonely  place  called  Erghene,  by 
the  diligence-company,  having  crossed  two  stone  bridges 
just  before. 

At  10  A.M.  we  continued  our  route  across  a  dull, 
bare,  lumpish  country,  which  nowhere  ofiered  the 
slightest  shade;  and  although  the  morning  had  been 


582  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

chillingly  cold,  the  weather  was  now  blazing  hot 
Truly  it  was  like  an  African  desert  transplanted  into 
Europe,  and  set  down  on  the  vei^  of  a  great  capital* 
The  road,  or  roads — for  there  were  at  least  a  score  of 
them — ^were  nothing  but  tracks  worn  in  the  heath  by 
aruba  wheels,  and  the  hoofs  of  camels,  horses,  and 
oxen — rien  que  du  frayL  Far  as  the  eye  could  reach 
across  the  plain,  not  a  house,  not  a  tree,  not  a  bush 
was  to  be  seen.  Lts  Turques  y  ont  fait  table  rass.* 
Or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  the  Turks  have  only 
finished  a  devastation  which  was  begun  and  gready 
advanced  by  the  Bulgarian  savages  in  their  invasions 
of  the  Greek  Empire,  long  before  the  Mussulmazis 
crossed  over  into  Europe.  The  Bulgarian  shepherd- 
warriors  wanted  vast  pastures  for  their  flocks  and  herds, 
and  they  cared  for  little  else. 

We  were  now  on  the  Tchorlu  Kour,  or  Desert  of 
Tchorlu  (commonly  called  Tchiorla),  where,  about 
the  year  1812,  Mr.  Wood,  an  English  traveller,  and 
the  janizary  who  accompanied  him,  were  muidered  by 
the  Arnaout  marauders  of  Delhi  Katri  of  Bourgaz, 
The  plain  was  well  suited  to  cavalry  evolutions,  and 
here  a  bloody  battle  was  fought  between  Bajazet  and 
his  son  Selim.  In  this  unnatural  warfare  ihe  son  was 
defeated ;  and  ^'  he  owed  his  safety  to  the  swiftness  of 
his  horse,  called  the  '  Black  Cloud,*  and  with  that 
steed  he  fled  to  the  Khan  of  the  Crimean  Tartars,  who 
was  his  father-in^aw.^f  As  we  slowly  approached  the 
town,  which  stands  on  the  edge  of  this  Arabian  desertt 
we  saw  some  herds  of  brood-mares,  with  their  foals^ 
and  a  lai^e  gipsy  encampment 

*  M.  BknquL  f  BusbeqiiinB. 


^""^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^      ^^  "■  ^^i^^Kj'^^W^W^S^"'     »^^lp* 


Chap.  XXX.  TCHORLt.  583 

In  front  of  the  town  of  Tchorlu,  there  was  a  broad 
bed  of  a  stream,  deep  and  impetuous  in  the  winter 
season^  but  now  much  shrunken ;  the  chasm  was  spanned 
by  a  new  stone  bridge,  which  looked  solid,  but  very 
rough.  We  preferred  fording  the  stream  a  little  above 
the  bridge,  at  a  spot  where  a  few  very  thin  cows  and 
oxen  were  drinking.  On  a  hill  above  the  opposite 
bank,  we  came  upon  some  ruined  walls  of  the  Lower 
Empire,  and  saw  the  slight  remains  of  a  small  fortress 
or  castle  on  another  detached  hill.  These  were  no 
doubt  parts  of  the  defensive  works  raised  by  the  Empe- 
ror Anastasius,  who  carried  a  wall  right  across  the 
peninsula,  from  Heraclea  on  the  Fropontis  to  Derkon  on 
the  shore  of  the  Euxine,  to  cover  Constantinople  and 
the  other  few  Thracian  towns  which  yet  belonged  to 
him  from  the  attacks  of  the  fierce  Bulgarians.  At 
12.20  P.M.  we  alighted  at  a  Turkish  coffee-house,  in 
this  rustical,  not  unpleasant  town.  The  place  looked 
quite  cheerful  after  the  wilderness  we  had  passed,  and 
the  people  were  civil  and  obliging. 

Tchorlu  now  contained  about  300  Turkish,  500 
Greek,  100  Armenian,  and  60  Jewish  houses,  to  be 
added  to  which  were  from  70  to  80  hovels  occupied 
by  gipsies.  There  was  evidence  that  the  town  had 
once  been  very  much  larger.  It  had  three  mosques, 
the  principal  one  being  surrounded  by  ruins,  and 
bearing  on  its  own  walls  the  marks  of  musket-ball  and 
cannon-shot  Another  of  the  mosques  had  had  its 
dome  cracked  by  artillery.  The  town  was  the  scene 
of  a  fearful  conflict  between  the  reformers  and  anti* 
reformers  of  Sultan  Selim's  time  (in  1807-8),  and, 
together  with  Bourgaz  and  several  other  towns  in  these 


584  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXX. 

regions,  it  had  suffered  very  severely.  Some  large 
houses,  with  gardens,  which  had  been  konacks  of  rich 
and  prosperous  Ayans — the  hereditary  proyincial  aris- 
tocracy— were  levelled  with  the  ground,  or,  being  cur- 
tailed of  their  dimensions,  were  turned  into  hovels  for  . 
the  poor  Turks,  or  into  stables  for  cattle.  All  the 
Turkish  houses  were  in  a  dilapidated  condition,  and 
most  of  their  occupants  seemed  miserably  poor.  Sach 
has  been  the  march,  or  such  the  consequence,  of  reform 
all  over  this  wretched  empire  I  The  rich  have  indeed 
been  sent  empty  away,  but  the  hungry,  instead  of  being 
filled  with  good. things,  have  become  far  more  hungry 
and  bare  than  before. 

For  a  long  time  we  had  scarcely  seen  a  fruit-tree, 
but  here  at  Tchorlu  were  a  good  many  cherry-trees, 
and  the  place  is  renowned  for  its  cherries.  The  vine- 
yards round  the  town  are  extensive,  and  a  great  quan- 
tity of  wine — some  of  it  being  good — is  made  on  the 
spot.  The  best  was  selling  here  for  twenty  paras  the 
oke,  or  about  an  English  penny  the  bottle;  but  the 
people  said  they  could  not  send  it  to  Constantinople 
because  the  mudir  of  the  town  took  twenty  paras  the 
oke,  and  the  custom-house  at  Constantinople  took  as 
much  more,  and  the  expenses  of  carriage  were  very 
heavy.  Thus,  with  these  duties,  and  with  these  horrible 
tracks  for  roads,  trade,  even  at  this  short  distance  from 
the  capital,  is  checked  and  choked,  and  all  production 
and  industry  discouraged. 

At  four  in  the  afternoon  we  took  the  road  for  KiniklL 

For  some  distance  we  had  on  our  left  the  famous  vine- 
yards of  Tchorlii,  but  some  of  them  were  sadly  neg- 
lected, and  others  seemed  to  be  altogether  abandoned- 


^^-p«v<v>HPv^va  I  ■■■■       «p— •^^^■■pi^^w^p^yi 


Chap.  XXX.  KIKIKLI.  585 

From  the  first  ridge  we  ascended^  we  caught  again  a 
magnificent  view  of  the  broad  Propontis,  which  we  had 
not  seen  since  our  departure  from  Bodosto.  The 
weather,  which  had  been  so  oppressively  hot  in  the 
desert,  was  truly  delightfiil  on  the  downs  near  the 
coast ;  there  was  what  old  Busbequius  called  ^^  a  Thra- 
cian  breeze,  and  an  incredible  sweetness  of  air."  But 
the  country  was  all  bare  and  desolate — as  lonely  as  the 
desert  we  had  left  behind  us. 

At  6.30  P.M.  we  had  the  port  and  old  town  of 
Heraclea  on  our  right  hand,  but  at  some  distance ;  and 
beyond  the  town  we  saw  the  same  view  which  had 
enchanted  us  on  the  2nd  of  May. 

At  7.30  P.M.  we  crossed  a  stream  by  a  rough  stone 
bridge,  and  alighted  at  Kinikli,  in  a  deep  hollow  with 
pestiferous  swamps  on  every  side.  Not  long  ago  here 
was  a  very  considerable  Turkish  town  and  a  prosperous 
population ;  it  was  almost  destroyed  in  the  civil  war  of 
1807-9,  and  the  malaria  fevers,  the  consequence  of  the 
negligence  and  poverty  which  had  left  the  stream  to 
overflow  the  land,  so  far  completed  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion, that  there  were  now  at  Kinikli  only  two  cafinets,  a 
forlorn  khan,  a  backal's  shop,  and  one  tumble-down  farm- 
house. Of  two  fair  stone  fountains  one  was  ruined  and 
useless.  The  noise  from  the  marshes  was  so  loud  as 
almost  to  prevent  sleep,  and  the  flooring  of  the  room 
over  one  of  the  cafinets,  where  we  had  our  quarters,  was 
not  harder,  but  more  uneven  than  usual. 

On  the  morning  (the  19th  of  May)  we  were  up  with 
the  sun.  We  did  not  leave  Kinikli  until  7  a.m.  ;  and 
then,  instead  of  taking  the  direct  tract  to  Selyvria,  we 
made  a  circuit  to  visit  a  Turkish  chiftlik  which  was 


586  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

much  iamed  all  over  the  country.  A  few  patches  of 
com  and  oats  lay  on  the  hill  sides  by  the  mined  town« 
Biding  across  a  most  lonely  and  ragged  wilderness  for 
nearly  three  hours,  we  came  to  the  fiurm  of  Arif  Bey, 
who  grew  the  best  com  in  these  parts  and  in  great 
quantities. 

In  the  absence  of  his  master,  the  kehayah,  not  a 
Turk,  but  a  very  intelligent  young  Greek,  receiyed  us 
very  hospitably,  placing  before  us  bread,  milk,  yaonrt. 
honey,  sheep's  cheese,  and  coffee,  which  appeared  to  be 
all  he  had  to  give.  The  stables,  bams,  and  other  out- 
buildings were  extensive  and  numerous,  and  thoogli 
rough  and  slovenly  enough,  in  &r  better  order  than 
common.  The  bey  had  more  than  2000  sheep  and 
nearly  100  cows.  They  made  hardly  any  cheese  of 
cows'  milk,  but  were  great  producers  of  the  acrid 
bleep's  milk  cheese,  exporting  on  an  aven^  30,000 
okes  a  year  to  tiie  capital  by  way  of  Sel3rvria  and  the 
Sea  of  Marmora.  In  a  large  dairy  we  saw  them 
churning  the  ewes'  milk.  The  bey^s  kitchen-garden 
seemed  to  be  stocked  with  leeks  and  onions,  and  with 
nothing  besides.  His  basse^aur  had  but  a  poor  show 
of  poultry.  He  lived  upon  lamb  until  lambs  grew  into 
sheep,  and  then  he  lived  upon  mutton,  according  to  Ae 
universal  usage  of  the  country.  Except  a  few  Greeks 
all  the  farm-labourers  were  Bulgarians,  who  were  now 
receiving  from  six  to  seven  piastres  a  day.  These  fellows 
would  vanish  as  soon  as  all  the  crops  were  gotten  in. 
But  there  were  a  few  of  the  Bulgarians  who  were 
stationary,  being  engaged  by  the  year,  and  receiving 
from  1000  to  1200  piastres  per  annum,  together  with 
their  daily  food,   which  consisted  almost  entirely  of 


Chap.  XXX.  FARM  OP  ABIF  BEY.  587 

coarse  bread,  milk,  garlic,  and  black  dtlyes  of  the 
poorest  sort  Tet  diese  fellows  were  uncommonly 
robust  and  strong.  There  was  a  small  vineyard  merely 
for  fruit  for  the  table  and  for  petmez.  Several  of  the 
corn-fields  were  uncommonly  clean,  covered  with 
splendid  crops,  trenched  and  sufficiently  protected  from 
the  inroads  of  cattle,  which  are  oflen  very  destructive. 
His  wheat  well  merited  its  praise.  By  living  in  <he 
country,  by  looking  after  his  own  farm,  and  by  engaging 
the  best  Bulgarian  labourers,  Arif  Bey,  from  a  very 
poor  one,  had  made  himself  quite  a  rich  man,  and  he 
was  still  young.  With  only  a  little  agricultural  science 
and  a  few  better  implements,  he  might  certainly  have 
•doubled  his  crops  and  his  income.  Yet,  if  other 
Turkish  gendemen  were  only  to  do  as  he  has  done,  the 
face  of  the  country  might  yet  be  changed.  But  where 
can  one  look  for  such  men  ? 

Remounting  at  10  a.m.  we  soon  crossed  this  oasis, 
and  came  again  upon  the  desert.  In  half  an  hour 
we  stopped  at  a  litde  coffee  and  guard  house  near  a 
swamp  and  a  wooden  bridge,  where  the  guard  consisted 
of  three  Turkish  gray-beards,  who  made  very  good 
cofifee,  but  were  so  old  that  they  could  scarcely  toddle. 
Two  junior  guards  had  gone  into  Selyvria  to  amuse 
themselves.  We  loitered  at  this  wild  spot,  talking 
most  of  the  time  with  the  old  Turks  about  robbers. 
While  we  stayed  an  old  Mussulman,  in  a  "  transition 
state,"  came  down  to  the  water  with  an  aruba,  a  pair  of 
very  small  oxen,  a  mattress,  a  coverlet,  a  hen,  and  his 
wife.  He  was  moving  with  aU  his  worldly  goods^  in 
the  desperate  hope  of  getting  out  of  the  way  of  the  tax- 
collectors  and  seraflb.    It  was  about  1 1.30  a.m.  when 


588  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        ~€hap.  XXX. 

we  remounted.  We  had  the  blue  Fropontis  close  on 
our  right  almost  ever  since  leaving  Kinikli.  Now, 
crossing  a  stiff  ridge,  we  came  down  to  the  sea-beadi, 
along  which  we  rode  for  about  twenty  minutes.  The 
only  being  we  met  upon  it  was  a  dingy,  wandering 
fakir,  who  told  us  that  he  came  from  JSindostan! 
Climbing  another  ridge,  which  was  very  steep  and  jutted 
out  into  the  sea,  we  again  descended  to  the  level  shore. 
Although  we  had  made  short  stages  and  frequent  rests, 
our  poor  Adrianople  horses  were  by  this  time  quite 
done  up,  stumbling  at  every  three  steps,  and  moving 
and  looking  as  if  they  were  fast  asleep.  But  Selyvria 
was  now  close  before  us,  and  traversing  the  long  stone 
bridge,  we  entered  the  town  at  2  p.m.  We  had  been 
five  days  and  nights  without  taking  off  our  clothes  or 
seeing  the  sight  of  sheets,  and  the  only  means  we  had 
had  of  performing  our  ablutions  was  to  stop  at  some 
fountain  or  stream  on  the  road.  A  Turkic  bath  and  a 
Selyvria  barber  soon  made  a  new  man  of  me ;  and  the 
first  night  in  the  hekim's  comfortable  house  and  clean 
beds  was  a  perfect  Elysium. 

The  cholera  had  not  re-appeared,  but  there  was 
choleric  news  from  Stamboul  and  Kirk-Klissia.  Sarim 
Pasha,  the  new  vizier,  had  struck  up  a  temporary  league 
with  the  anti-reform  or  anti-wine-and-spirit-bibbing 
party;  in  the  capital  a  fierce  war  had  been  made  upon 
the  wine-pots,  and  the  poncherias  and  raki-shops  (many 
of  which  were  kept  by  Maltese  and  Ionian  Greeks)  had 
been  forcibly  shut  up.  Improving  on  the  example  set 
at  head-quarters,  Arif  Fa^a,  governor  of  Kirk-E^issia, 
whose  harem  we  had  passed  in  the  Tchorlii  desert,  had 
bastinadoed  two  Mussulmans  to  within  an  inch  of  their 


Chap.  XXX.  CASE  OF  SOTIRI  MAORI.  589 

lives  for  being  found  drunk  on  raki.  And  at  this  very 
time  there  was  not  at  Constantinople  a  single  pasha  of 
name  or  note  but  indulged  in  wine  and  spirituous  liquors* 
We  all  knew  how  it  would  be ;  the  storm  would  soon 
blow  over,  the  persecution  would  exhaust  itself  in  its  first 
fury ;  and  those  who  had  a  mind  to  it  would  tipple  just 
as  before.  On  our  return  to  Constantinople  the  raki- 
shops  were  all  open  and  Sarim  Pasha's  edict  seemed  to 
be  forgotten. 

Old  Sotiri  Macri,  the  Cephaloniote,  who  had  taken 
to  agriculture  and  purchased  the  chiftlik,  near  Heradea, 
was  deep  in  trouble  and  anxiety,  for  his  right  to  hold 
property  was  questioned.  Something  of  this  I  had 
heard  before,  but  while  we  were  away  at  Adrianople 
his  anxieties  had  increased,  and  he  now  told  me  the 
whole  story  about  his  farm.  The  chifUik  had  passed 
from  its  original  Turkish  owner  to  an  Armenian  ere- 
ditor,  a  certain  serafi^  who  rejoiced  in  the  name  of 
Sarkiz-Boyaz-Oglou,  who  had  sold  it  to  Macri  for 
96,000  piastres,  money  down.  The  serafi^,  as  a  Rayah 
subject,  had  every  right  to  hold  or  to  sell,  and  Macri 
had  conformed  to  the  Turkish  law  in  having  the  deeds 
drawn  up  in  the  name  of  his  wife,  a  ^Rayah  by  birth, 
and  a  native  of  Sely  vria.  When  it  came  into  his  pos- 
session the  farm  was  nudo^  quite  naked,  there  was 
nothing  upon  it  Macri  had  spent  some  20,000  piastres 
more  in  stock,  stabling,  house-buildings  etc.  The  crops 
he  had  raised  in  1847,  and  the  good  prices  he  had 
gotten  for  them,  had  excited  the  cupidity  and  envy  of  a 
big  Turk  named  Emin  Bey,  the  proprietor  of  an  ad- 
joining chiftlik  of  immense  extent,  but  scarcely  scratched 
by  the  plough.     Instead  of  doing  upon  his  own  grounds 


590  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

what  Macri  had  done  on  his,  the  Bey  must  needs  have 
Macri's  chiftlik.  He  had  raised  a  terrible  outcry 
against  the  enormity  of  landed  property  being  held  by 
a  stranger,  and  the  danger  of  allowing  seven  Ionian 
Greeks  (the  men  who  had  introduced  all  the  improved 
cultivation  that  there  was)  to  live  upon  a  farm  in  the 
Sultan's  dominions.  The  Bey  had  friends  among  the 
Oulema  at  Constantinople,  and  those  precious  managers 
of  the  Yakou^  who  had  committed,  or  submitted  to, 
eyery  species  of  irregularity  and  illegality-who  were 
now  seeing  the  property  of  which  they  were  the  holy 
guardians  turned  from  its  purpose  and  seised  and 
squandered — refused  to  give  Macri  some  necessary 
title,  and  were  telling  him  that  he  must  out,  and  that 
Emin  Bey  must  have  the  farm  on  his  reimbursing  the 
96,000  piastres.  Thus  do  they  encourage  agriculture 
in  reformed  Turkey  I 

We  spent  five  days  rather  pleasantly  at  Selyvria. 

On  Wednesday  the  24th  of  May,  at  8  A.M.,  we  left 
to  travel  by  land  towards  Constantinople.  We  rode 
under  the  landward  face  of  the  old  walls  and  fortifica- 
tions, having  on  our  left  hand  some  fields  of  com  and 
flax,  a  few  vineyards,  and  a  long  desolate  Turkish 
cemetery.  At  9  a.m.  we  had  a  tall  tumulus,  called 
Arab  Tepe,  on  our  right,  and  another  tumulus  on  our 
left,  both  standing  on  a  rough,  broken,  lonely  heath. 
The  Arab  Tepe  was  so  named  from  a  daring  black 
robber,  who,  when  surrounded  by  the  irregular  troops 
of  some  ancient  Sultan,  had  retreated  to  the  top  of  it, 
and  had  there  sold  his  life  dearly.  A  little  beyond  the 
Tepe,  in  a  hollow,  there  was  a  rude  bridge,  and  doee 
by  it  the  grave  of  a  German  courier,  who  was  murdered 


Chap.  XY^  VILLAGE  OP  PIVADBS.  591 

on  the  bridge  by  robbers  in  the  latter  days  of  Sultan 
Selim.  In  another  hour  we  dismounted  at  the  sea- 
coast  village  of  Pivades,  where  we  had  landed  in  the 
night  of  the  29th  of  April.  We  were  hospitably  enter- 
tained by  the  father,  mother,  and  sister  of  our  good 
hostess  at  Selyvria,  who  all  lived  here  in  a  clean  and 
comfortable  house.  The  village  was  entirely  occupied 
by  Greeks ;  there  was  not  a  Turk  in  it  or  near  it ;  and 
so,  without  offence  given,  a  number  of  pigs  were  strolling 
about  the  streets.  Though  most  of  the  wooden  houses 
were  rather  deldbrdeSy  the  place  had,  comparatively,  an 
air  of  neatness,  activity,  and  well  doing.  Down  by 
the  sea-beach  we  saw  a  good  solid  stone  magazine 
rising  up,  but  this,  like  the  stone  warehouses  at  Sely- 
vria,  belonged  to  some  Greeks  of  the  Ionian  islands. 
These  active  enterprising  people  have  certainly  done 
nearly  all  of  the  little  that  has  been  done  along  these 
desolated  coasts.  It  was  by  capital  they  advanced  that 
cultivation  had  been  somewhat  extended  round  this 
village,  where  we  observed  more  flax,  a  good  sprinkling 
of  wheat,  and  some  very  large  bean-fields.  On  a  blul^ 
lofty,  seaward  cliff,  above  the  village,  stands  a  tower  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  eminently  picturesque  in  its  ruin. 

At  1 1  A.M.  we  remounted  for  a  very  pleasant  ride 
along  the  beach  of  the  Propontis.  Though  so  near  the 
capital,  the  country  was  still  most  desolate,  and  hardly 
a  traveller  was  to  be  seen.  At  last  we  met  a  solitary 
man  in  a  Frank  dress,  trudging  along  on  foot  with  a 
staff  in  his  hand  and  a  long  pipe-stick,  and  a  very  small 
parcel  at  his  back.  He  was  a  German ;  one  of  the 
artizans  that  had  been  trepanned  by  Hohannes  Dadian : 
he  could  bear  the  life  at  the  imperial  fabric  at  Zeitoun 


592  TUBEEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chaf.  XXX. 

Bournu  no  longer ;  in  order  not  to  run  mad  he  had  run 
away^  and  he  was  now  walking  back  to  Germany. 
Poor  fellow !  He  had  a  long  and  rough  journey  be- 
tween him  and  the  Danube,  he  had  hardly  any  money, 
and  he  could  speak  no  language  but  German  ;  but  he 
was  young  and  strong,  and  if  some  Bulgarian  shepherds 
did  not  knock  him  on  the  head  for  his  pipe-stick  and 
little  bundle,  and  if  marsh  fever  did  not  lay  hold  of 
him,  he  would  probably  get  safely  enough  into  his  own 
country* 

At  1  P.M.  we  halted  for  a  few  minutes  at  the  reduced 
miserable  little  hamlet  of  Koumbourgaz,  or  Bourgaz 
on  the  Sands,  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  sea,  and 
affording  a  pleasant  light  white  wine,  and  the  prospect 
of  the  ruins  of  another  old  tower.  The  villagers  were 
Greeks ;  the  Turks  were  all  gone,  and  had  left  nothing 
but  their  gravestones  behmd  them.  In  another  half- 
hour  we  quitted  the  sea-beach  and  struck  across  un- 
dulating hills.  On  a  charming  green  cape  jutting  out 
into  the  Propontis  we  saw  the  small  Greek  village  of 
Panagia,  with  some  corn-fields  and  vineyards,  which 
appeared  to  be  very  neatly  tended.  About  3  pjm.  we 
were  near  the  end  of  the  very  long  bridge  which  bears 
the  names  of  Buyuk  Tchekmedjeh,  or  Ponte  Grande, 
having  the  Greek  village  of  Phlaya  on  our  left,  and  the 
larger  Greek  village  of  Ealicrati  on  our  right,  over  the 
sea,  on  the  side  of  a  beautiful  little  inlet.  The  scenery 
here  had  other  charms  besides  being  picturesque: 
though  in  narrow  limits,  there  was  some  appearance  of 
order,  industry,  and  prosperity;  the  corn-fields  and 
some  fields  of  flax  were  inclosed,  the  vineyards  were 
very  neatly  and  judiciously  managed,  and  a  few  fishing-* 


rii«iiAW^«NHpi»avw**^'W'"*''«**"*«>"*'^ 


Chap.  XXX.  MORE  RUIN !  593 

boats  and  small  trading-vessels  were  anchored  in  the 
inlet  It  is  the  bridge  that  is  called  Buyuk  (great  or 
big),  and  not  the  lagoon,  which  is  inferior  in  size  and  in 
picturesque  beauty  to  the  other  lagoon.  As  there,  (at 
Kutchuk  Tchekmedjeh,)  the  passage,  which  would 
carry  the  excess  of  waters  into  the  near  sea,  has  been 
allowed  to  be  obstructed,  and  in  part  blocked  up  with 
sands,  so  that  in  the  wet  season  the  lagoon  inundates  a 
broad  strip  of  country,  of  which  a  part  remains  a  pes- 
tilential swamp  through  the  rest  of  the  year.  This 
swamp  is  crossed  by  the  very  long  bridge,  of  the  roughest 
workmanship,  and  of  a  truly  Turkish  design.  I  believe 
it  to  be  unique ;  rather  than  one  bridge,  it  looks  like 
four  bridges  set  together,  end  to  end,  the  steep  ascents 
and  descents  (which  the  Turks  must  have  in  their  stone 
bridges)  being  repeated  four  several  times.  I  think 
there  were  twenty-eight  arches  in  all,  but  now  there 
was  not  water  under  more  than  two  or  three  of  them. 
At  the  end  of  the  bridge  was  the  village  of  Buyuk 
Tchekmedjeh — another  congeries  of  ruins  and  dilapida- 
tions! A  posting  town,  in  an  important  and  com- 
manding station  on  the  high  road,  a  place  through 
which  all  travellers  passed,  had  dwindled  down  to  the 
merest  hamlet,  wherein  nothing  was  solid  except  some 
old  stabling,  and  nothing  new  except  a  wooden  coffee- 
house. Mosques  and  minarets,  and  stone  khans,  were 
down,  or  were  shattered;  of  many  houses  only  the 
brick-and-stone  foundations  were  left ;  turn  which  way 
you  would,  you  came  upon  ruins.  There  were  a  few 
cypress-trees  near  a  mitiaret  of  very  singular  construc- 
tion, and  by  the  coffee-house,  near  a  Moresque  fountain, 
there  was  a  spl^idid  plane-tree,  in  the  shade  oX  which 
VOL.  n.  2  Q 


594  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.  Chap.  XXX. 

nearly  all  the  lazy  Turks  oi  the  village  were  smokbg 
their  pipes.  We  left  the  forlorn  place  at  3.30  p.m. 
After  traversing  one  of  the  richest  of  alluvial  flats, 
which  was  producing  nothing  but  weeds  and  brambles, 
we  toiled  up  a  steep,  bare,  and  lofty  ridge  of  sand- 
stone,  passing  through  gaps  or  gullies  famed  for  the 
robberies  and  murders  which  had  been  committed  in 
them.  We  met  a  few  Greek  viUagers  carrying  produce 
down  to  the  little  port  of  Kalicrati,  on  the  backs  of 
poor  horses  and  starving  donkeys.  At  4.30,  in  a  green 
hollow  among  the  hills,  partially  wooded  with  small  oak, 
we  passed  the  glaring,  staring,  new  khan,  which  had 
been  built  by  Beschid  Pasha,  or  rather  by  his  Armenian 
bimker.  It  was  daubed  over  with  that  yellow  colouring 
which  is  so  offensive  to  the  eye  in  the  new  barracks  and 
other  buildings  at  Constantinople.  It  had  not  been 
built  for  eternity — it  was  no  mor^  like  the  grand  old 
khans  of  the  Vizier  of  Sultan  Suleiman,  than  Abdul 
Medjid  is  like  Mahomet  IL ;  one  wall  had  already  de- 
clined from  the  perpendicular,  and,  owing  to  some  awk- 
ward settling  in  front,  there  was  already  a  crack  which 
had  been  ingeniously  filled  up  with  mud  and  mortar, 
and  covered  over  with  the  thick  yellow  wash. 

At  5.30  P.M.  we  reached  the  hiUs  which  overhang  the 
lagoon  or  lake  of  Fonte  Piccolo,  or  Kutchuk  Tchek- 
medjeh,  the  long  and  broad  waters  of  which  were 
shining  beautifully  in  the  declining  sun.  Presently 
horse-soldiers  appeared  in  the  hoUow,  winding  round 
the  base  of  a  bluff  hill ;  and  these  troopers  were  followed 
by  more  and  still  by  more,  their  lanoe-heads  glittering 
in  the  sun,  and  the  scarlet  p^nons  under  them  floating 
on  the  breeze.     It  was  a  pretty  sight  at  a  distance,  but 


Chap.  XXX.     LANCERS  OF  THE  IMPERIAL  GUARD.  595 

a  beggarly  exhibition  when  seen  close.  As  the  men 
ascended  from  the  lake,  we  drew  up  by  the  side  of  the 
rough  path,  and  saw  them  defile  before  us.  They 
formed  two  regiments  of  lancers  of  the  Imperial  Guard, 
and  were  on  their  march  to  the  Danube  to  stop  the 
progress  of  revolutionism  in  Moldavia  and  Wallachia. 
Russia,  nearer  at  hand  and  better  provided,  had  already 
sent  troops  into  the  principalities,  as  she  was  entitled 
and,  indeed,  bound  to  do  by  treaties.  But  there  was  to 
be  a  joint  occupation— the  Sultan  and  the  Tzar  being 
by  treaties  joint  protectors  of  those  ill-governed,  unhappy 
countries — and  the  Forte  was  displaying  the  greatest 
anxiety  to  have  a  force  in  the  field  eqiml  to  that  of 
Kussia.  Equal  in  numbers  it  might  possibly  be,  but  in 
appointments,  discipline,  training,  and  all  martial  quali- 
ties ?  These  lancers  were  the  fellows  I  have  already 
described  at  Constantinople,  but  they  looked  more 
ra^ed  and  dirty  now  than  then.  Although  this  was 
their  first  day's  march,  the  appearance  both  of  horses 
and  men  was  altogether  deplorable.  We  could  see  no 
baggage-train,  no  camp-equipage,  nor  any  provision  for 
the  accommodation  and  comfort  of  the  troops.  They 
had  hurried  off  in&ntry  for  the  Danube  in  steam-boats, 
and  between  the  1st  of  June  and  the  4th  of  July  we 
saw  several  steamers  crowded  with  foot^soldiers  leave 
the  Golden  Horn  for  the  same  destination.  The  lancers 
suffered  loss  from  sickness  before  they  got  across  the 
Balkan  mountain :  by  the  middle  of  June  the  terrible 
Danubian  fever  was  in  fiiU  force ;  the  malady  prevailed 
until  October ;  and  in  the  course  of  that  summer  and 
autumn  tihe  mortality  among  the  Sultan's  ill-provided 
troops  was  said  to  be  awful.     Knowing  that  this  must 

2  q2 


596  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.  Chap.  XX3L 

be  the  case,  we  looked  upon  tiiiese  poor,  bare  lancers  as 
victims  driven  to  a  pest-house. 

At  the  wooden  bridge  or  platform  beyond  the  lagoon 
the  Albanian  guard  demanded  our  passports — ^this  being 
the  first  time  they  had  been  asked  for  since  our  de- 
parture from  the  capital.  We  went  across  the  wUder- 
nessy  skirted  the  Sultan's  model  farm,  rode  into  die 
village  of  San  Stefano,  and  alighted  at  the  hospitable 
door  of  Bishop  Southgate. 


i*#< 


Chap.  XXXI.  HOHANNES  DADIAN.  597 


CHAPTER  XXXL 

San  Stefano,  Macri-Eeui,  and  Zeitonn-Bonmii  —  Hohannes  Dadian  — 
More  importetiona  of  European  Mechanics  —  The  Imperial  Manniac-* 
tories  —  Horrible  Mismanagement  —  New  Arrangements  —  Works 
stopped  for  Want  of  Money  —  Sad  State  of  the  English  Working- 
People  —  Four  Englishmen  drowned  —  The  Grande  Fabrique  at 
Zeitonn  Bonmti  ■ —  Fall  of  a  Tower  —  No  Water  —  Ecole  des  Arts  et 
Metiers  —  Destmction  of  English  Machinery  —  The  Imperial  Mann- 
factories  by  Moonlight  —  A  Cast-iron  Fountain  for  the  Sultan  -^ 
Mining  Operations  —  Coal  —  Copper  —  Silver  —  Denial  of  Justice  to 
English  Workmen — The  Iron  Steamboat  —  Calico  and  Print  Works  — 
Manufactoiy  of  Fezzes  —  Dreadful  Poverty  —  More  Waste  of  the 
Sultan's  Money  —  Another  Cloth  Factory  —  A  Leather  Factory  — 
Imperial  Porcelain  and  Glass  Manufactories  —  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha  a 
Brick  and  Tile  maker  —  The  Sultan's  Model  Farm  finally  ruined  by 
the  Armenians  —  Mismanagement  and  Robbery  —  The  Agricultural 
School  and  its  Students  —  Malaria  Fever  at  the  Model  Farm —  Betum 
of  Dr.  Davis  and  his  Family  to  America. 

We  remained  several  days  at  San  Stefano^  and  we 
afterwards  returned  to  our  American  friends  as  fre- 
quently as  we  could,  visiting  the  imperial  fabrics  on 
our  way. 

I  shall  now  endeavour  to  put  together  my  observa- 
tions on  those  works  which  were  to  be  Birminghams 
and  Manchesters  in  Turkey,  as  also  all  that  remains 
to  be  said  about  the  model  iarm,  which  was  to  put  a 
new  life  into  Turkish  agriculture. 

During  the  protracted  absence  of  the  great  Hohannes 
Dadian,  the  director-in-chief  of  all  the  imperial  works, 
it  was  constantly  said  that  matters  would  be  arranged 
and  go  right  as  soon  as  he  returned  from  Christendom. 


598  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

Boghos,  his  locum  tenens,  was  said  to  be  inferior  in 
ability  as  in  authority — a  rough,  ill-mannered  person, 
very  obstinate,  and  generally  very  careless  and  indo- 
lent: but  Hohannes — Hal  parlous  nous  de  qelhl — 
Hohannes  would  soon  be  here,  and  then  all  things  would 
go  on  well  and  pleasantly.  As  the  model  farm  was 
under  the  same  supreme  direction,  poor  Dr.  Davis  took 
comfort  in  these  assurances,  and  was  always  asking 
when  Hohannes  was  coming.  In  the  meanwhile  the 
Constantinople  newspapers  devoted  occasional  para- 
graphs to  the  travels  of  Hohannes  in  England,  France, 
Belgium,  and  Germany — describing  how  he  was  every- 
where received  "  with  the  honours  and  distinctions  due 
to  his  talents  and  patriotism  T 

At  last,  on  the  14th  of  February,  the  great  Hohannes 
Dadian,  Baroutjee-Bashi,  etc.,  arrived  m  1^  Grold^n 
Horn,  bringing  with  him  a  great  many  more  European 
mechanics,  chiefly  Germans.  He  had  been  preceded 
by  Mr.  Thorman,  of  Newcastle,  a  clever  and  very 
superior  man,  who  had  been  employed  eight  years  in 
setting  up  engines  and  manufactories  on  the  Bhine,  and 
who  was  now  to  be  chief  superintendent  of  the  Sultan's 
works  on  the  Fropontis.  Mr.  Thorman,  like  all  Uie 
rest,  had  been  led  to  believe  that  wonders  would  follow 
the  arrival  of  Hohannes.  About  this  time  we  saw  Mr. 
T rather  frequently :  he  was  foil  of  hope ;  every- 
thing had  been  most  shamefolly  mismanaged ;  old  Mr. 

H ^  in  his  incompetency  and  submissiveness,  had 

been  committing  &e  strangest  blunders,  but  there  was  a 
plenty  of  good  English  machinery  collected,  and,  widi 
all  these  European  workmen,  he  had  no  doubt  that  he 
should  be  able  to  get  die  imperial  xoanufactorieg  into 


■■•■ 


Chap.  XXXI.  HOHANNES  DADIAN.  599 

something  like  good  working  order.  Again,  those  who 
knew  Hohannes  and  his  doings  told  us  that  things 
would  go  none  the  better  for  his  coming.  It  was  ex- 
pected, after  paying  and  receiving  his  visits  of  cere- 
mony, he  would  hurry  down  to  the  works,  pay  the 
mechanics  their  arrears,  examine  the  reports  of  the 
English  engineer,  and  introduce  some  order  and  system 
where  there  was  none.  It  was  also  believed  that  the 
great  man  would  make  haste  to  visit  the  Sultan's  model 
farm,  which  had  cost  so  much  money,  and  was  perishing 
in  its  birth  through  the  inexplicable  conduct  of  Boghos 
and  the  want  of  labourers,  which  ])roceeded  from  the 
want  of  money  to  pay  them.  But  weeks  and  weeks 
passed,  and  nothing  was  seen  of  Hohannes,  who  kept 
himself  warm  and  snug  in  his  house  near  the  Sultan's 
palace  at  Beshiktash ;  and  when  people  applied  to  him 
for  instructions  or  for  authorizations  to  do  that  which 
ought  to  be  done,  they  were  referred  by  him  to  the 
boor  Boghos,  who  had  disgusted  them  all  and  thwarted 
the  best  endeavours  of  every  one  of  them.  Just  as 
before,  everything  seemed  to  be  done  to  retard  the 
completion  of  the  works.  It  was  not  until  the  middle 
of  March  that  Hohannes  came  near  to  the  manufac- 
tories, and  then,  followed  by  his  tail  of  dependants  and 
servants,  he  merely  walked  through  them  on  his  way 
to  the  house  of  Boghos  at  San  Stefano,  looking  at 
nothing  but  the  outsides  of  the  buildings,  listening  to 
nobody  and  asking  no  questions  of  the  Europeans. 
Though,  when  at  San  Stefano,  close  to  the  model  farm, 
he  did  not  go  to  it,  nor  did  he  once  visit  the  establish'* 
ment  all  the  time  we  remained  in  Turkey. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  Porte  was  most 


600  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap,  XXXI. 

scared  by  the  Paris  revolution  of  February,  and  wanted 
every  piastre  it  could  lay  its  hands  on  to  equip  the 
fleet  and  strengthen  the  army.  There  were  loud  com- 
plaints about  the  money  which  had  been  spent,  to  no 
visible  purpose,  at  the  model  farm,  and  the  enormous 
sums  which  had  been  thrown  away  upon  manufactories 
which  manufactured  nothing.  I  heard  these  complaints 
from  many  Turks — I  heard  them  from  persons  con* 
nected  with  the  government^  but  not  from  any  of  the 
great  pashas.  The  reason  of  the  exception  was  ob* 
vious;  there  was  not  one  of  those  pashas  but  was 
deeply  in  debt  to  the  Armenian  serafli ;  and  the  nu- 
merous dynasty  of  the  Dadians,  with  their  connexions 
and  powerful  alliances,  could  exercise  an  influence 
everywhere,  and  present  an  array  of  creditors  sufficient 
to  strike  terror  into  the  boldest  hearts.  But  as  the 
scarcity  of  money  was  more  and  more  seriously  felt  by 
government,  as  Sarim  Pasha  threw  up  the  finances  and 
Reschid  Pasha  was  turned  out  of  the  Y iziriat,  a  storm 
began,  or  seemed  to  begin,  to  gather  round  the  heads 
of  the  Dadians*  Hohannes  shut  himself  up  in  his 
house  like  a  pasha  in  disgrace,  Boghos  became  invisible, 
and  Narcissus  Dadian  and  his  cousin  Arikel,  who  at- 
tended at  the  works  for  form  sake,  left  off  shaving 
themselves,  and  wore  a  dejected  and  most  humble 
appearance.  All  the  Dadians  were  evidently  in  the 
dumps;  but  the  aspect  of  Narcissus,  with  his  three 
weeks'  beard  and  unbrushed  coat,  was  most  forlorn. 
One  morning  that  we  saw  him  at  Zeitoim  Boumu,  he 
looked  like  one  that  had  been  doing  penance  in  dust 
and  ashes ;  his  arrogance  was  all  gone ;  from  a  bear  he 
had  become  a  lamb.     By  the  command  of  the  Sultan 


Chap.  XXXI.      INFLUENCE  OF  THE  DADIANS.  601 

the  accounts  of  Hohannes  and  Boghos  were  under  the 
unpleasant  process  of  being  overhauled.  Woe !  Woe ! 
For  many  sums  they  could  give  no  account  at  all.  But 
that  which  appeared  in  a  startling,  glaring  light  wafi| 
that  the  expenses  had  been  increasing  year  after  year, 
and  that  the  sum  total  of  the  expenditure  on  the  unpro- 
ductive imperial  fabrics  now  exceeded  280  millions  of 
piastres  I  Sarim  Pasha  was  a  good  accountant,  *'and 
was  now  Grand  Yizier.  Many  people  said  that  the 
long  reign  of  the  Dadians  must  now  surely  be  at  an 
end;  that  Hohannes  and  Boghos  had  good  savings 
safely  laid  up  in  the  English  funds,  and  that  some  fine 
morning  we  should  hear  that  the  whole  family  had  fled 
to  England.  Everybody  we  met  seemed  to  rejoice  at 
their  trouble ;  but  there  were  many  who  did  not  at  all 
believe  either  that  Uie  hour  of  their  ruin  was  come,  or 
that  the  crisis  would  be  either  long  or  serious.  *^  lis 
sarrangenmt  avec  les pashas^^  said  they;  "they  have 
such  influence ;  their  means  are  so  great  I  The  pashas 
are  so  needy  and  greedy ;  in  a  few  days  Narses  will 
shave  his  beard,  and  Boghos  will  carry  his  head  as  high 
as  ever.'*  And,  verily,  so  it  happened.  By  the  Sul- 
tan's orders  his  brother-in-law,  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha, 
Grand  Master  of  the  Artillery,  one  of  the  most  igno- 
rant, indolent,  extravagant,  and  most  deeply  indebted 
of  all  the  great  pashas — ^was  made  superintendent  gene- 
ral of  the  imperial  manufactories,  and  of  the  model 
farm  as  well.  All  notion  of  the  Dadians  being  in 
di^race  was  dissipated  by  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha's  feasts 
ing  with  them,  and  taking  a  night's  lodging  in  the  house 
of  Boghos  at  San  Ste&no.  All  that  the  Grand  Mas- 
ter of  Artillery  did  was  to  order  that  no  more  Euro- 


602  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

peaoB  should  be  imported,  and  no  more  eontracts 
renewed.  The  Dadians  were  left  to  be  the  sole  admi- 
nistrators and  managers  as  before.  Some  persons 
opined  that  they  must  have  bled  very  freely ;  that  this 
arrangement  must  have  taken  a  good  deal  of  the  gilding 
off  their  gingerbread :  I  know  not ;  I  can  only  say  that 
Narcissus  shaved  his  beard,  that  Boghos  appeared  to 
be  radiant  with  joy,  and  that  all  the  Dadians  seemed 
to  strike  the  sky  with  their  heads.  Some  men  whose 
contracts  had  expired  were  shipped  off  for  their  own 
countries ;  others  were  so  ill  treated  that  they  broke 
their  contracts,  and  returned  home  at  their  own  expense. 
Of  those  who  remained  the  greater  part  were  con- 
demned to  a  continuation  of  idleness,  because  their 
workshops  and  the  machinery  which  was  to  set  them 
going  were  not  yet  ready.  Their  pay  was  of  course 
more  irregular  than  before. 

The  English  mechanics  never  obtained  any  assist- 
ance from  their  consul.  It  was  truly  sad  to  see  the 
desperate  courses  to  which  these  fellows  betook  Uiem- 
selves.  Except  a  few  very  worthy  respectable  men, 
who  kept  themselves  at  home  with  their  families,  they 
were  nearly  always  to  be  found  in  the  raki-shops. 
Accidents  as  well  as  riots  were  of  course  frequent  On 
a  fine  afternoon,  while  we  were  staying  at  the  model 
farm,  four  of  them  got  drowned  in  the  Sea  of  Mar- 
mora. In  a  drunken  frolic  five  of  them,  and  a  hard- 
drinking  Greek,  embarked  in  a  little  tiny  boat^  which 
could  not  safely  carry  more  than  two  men ;  they  rowed 
down  to  a  tippling-shop  at  San  Stefano  to  take  in 
more  grog.  Bishop  Southgate,  who  lived  close  to  the 
beach,  saw  them  arrive  in  the  punt,  and  saw  them  take 


Chap.  XXXI.  GRANDE  PABRIQUB  AT  ZEITOUN  BOUBNU.    603 

their  departure.  They  then  hoisted  a  sail,  and  stood 
two  good  miles  out  to  sea.  A  gust  of  wind  came  down 
the  Bosphorus  and  capsized  the  boat,  and  out  of  the 
party  of  six  only  one  Englishmen  and  the  Greek  saved 
their  lives  by  swimming  until  they  were  picked  up  by  a 
caique  from  the  shore.  I  believe  that  three  of  those 
that  were  drowned  had  wives  and  children  in  England. 
Three  days  aA;er  the  catastrophe  we  spoke  to  the  Eng- 
lish survivor,  who  was  still  in  a  state  of  intoxication. 
The  jackals  of  Asia  would  provide  burial  for  the  four 
that  were  dead,  for  the  current  would  waft  them  to  that 
lonely  coast 

The  Grande  Fabrique  (as  it  is  called)  at  Zeitoun 
Boumu  was  indeed  a  grand  place  in  its  outward  dimen- 
sions. Three  sides  of  a  prodigiously  large  square  were 
inclosed  by  stone  walls^  the  front  of  the  square  on  the 
low  sea-cliff  being  left  open  to  the  Propontis.  Several 
of  the  workshops  within  this  area,  though  not  very 
solidly  built,  were  spacious,  well  ventilated  and  lighted, 
and  well  suited  to  the  purposes  for  which  they  were 
destined.  The  barracks,  built  to  lodge  all  the  work- 
men, of  whatsoever  nation  or  race,  flanked  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  square  on  the  south  side,  and  were  of  pro- 
digious length.  They  consisted  of  a  ground-floor  and 
one  upper  story,  through  the  whole  lei^th  of  which 
there  ran  a  narrow  corridor.  This  corridor  was 
650  feet  long.  The  walls  were  of  stone,  but  the  stair- 
cases, flooring,  partitions,  and  everything  within  were  of 
wood*  No  precautions  were  taken  against  fire,  and 
should  a  fire  break  out  in  this  interior,  the  barracks 
would  be  gutted  in  a  few  minutes.  Some  Englishmen 
who  were  living  there  looked  upon  this  catastrophe  as 


604  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

inevitaUe,  seeing  the  frequency  of  drunkenness  among 
the  Franks  and  the  carelessness  of  the  Armenians* 
Once  lighted  nothing  could  stop  the  progress  of  the 
flames,  for  the  air  rushes  through  those  corridors  as 
through  a  funnel,  and  the  woodwork — slight  and  flimsy 
— is  almost  entirely  of  inflammable  pine,  and,  now,  as 
dry  as  a  bone. 

By  the  west  wall  of  the  inclosure,  which  stands  by  the 
road  leading  from  Constantinople  to  Macri-keui  and 
San  Stefano,  they  were  building  an  enormous  square 
tower,  the  height  of  which  was  to  rival  the  altitude  of 
that  ex-famous  tower  at  Fonthill  Abbey.  I  forget  to 
what  use  it  was  to  be  applied  when  finished;  but  I 
believe  its  dimensions  and  height  were  mtended  rather 
for  the  sake  of  effect  than  for  any  necessary  or  usefiil 
object  Once  this  tower  of  2^itoun  Boumu  had  fallen 
down  with  an  awful  crash,  killing  above  thirty  of  the 
stonemasons  and  labourers.  Mr.  Sang  had  told  them 
that,  from  the  way  in  which  they  were  building,  it  must 
inevitably  fall ;  Mr.  Taylor  had  repeatedly  given  the 
same  opinion,  and  even  old  Mr.  H.  predicted  that  there 
would  be  some  terrible  catastrophe.  But  the  Dadians 
would  neither  make  use  of  the  science  of  the  English 
engineers  in  the  pay  of  government,  nor  even  listen  to 
their  advice  or  warnings;  the  Armenians,  as  architects 
of  the  Turks,  had  built  tall  towers  and  aspiring  minarets 
without  any  aid  from  Franks;  no  doubt  they  could 
build  them  yet ;  and  to  work  the  Armenians  went— « 
with  the  success  that  has  been  related.  The  terrible 
accident  reached  the  ear  of  the  tender-hearted  Sultan, 
who  ordered  money  to  be  given  to  the  families  of  the 
deceased.     This  was  well,  but  not  so  what  followed ; 


Chap.  XXXI.      TOWER  AT  ZETTOUN  BOUBNU.  605 

instead  of  punishing  or  disgracing  the  ignorant,  pre- 
sumptuouSy  obstinate  architect  of  the  tower,  Abdul 
Medjid,  upon  being  told  by  the  Dadians  that  he  was 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  sent  him  a  nishan,  or  the 
decoration  of  honour,  and  entreated  him  to  be  com- 
forted, as  the  loss  of  so  many  lives  had  been  all  Hsmst, 
or  an  accident,  and  not  a  crime  on  his  part  Since 
the  recommencement  of  the  tower  they  had  been  build- 
ing on  a  safer  plan,  but  the  work  was  now  suspended 
through  impecuniosity,  and  the  tower,  surrounded  with 
an  enormous  scaffolding,  was  not  60  feet  from  the 
ground.  No  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  stone  or 
coarse  marble  used  in  the  tower  had  been  taken  from 
the  Turkish  and  Armenian  burying*grounds :  the 
Armenian  priests  had  sold  the  tombstones  of  their 
people,  and  the  turbaned  stones  of  the  Mussulmans  had 
been  taken  without  any  ceremony. 

There  being  no  fresh  water  on  the  bad  spot  chosen 
for  these  works,  the  Dadians  had  employed  the  Sultan's 
head  gardener  to  make  a  famous  well  at  Zeitoun 
Bournu — a  well  which  was  now  giving  Mr.  Thorman 
salt-water  charged  with  seansand,  to  put  into  the  boilers 
of  his  steam-engines  I  But  nothing  was  there  about  the 
place,  except  the  shells  of  some  of  the  buildings,  in 
which  some  monstrous  absurdity,  some  solecism  in 
mechanical  science  had  not  been  perpetrated.  The 
headland  or  point  on  which  the  works  were  built  had  a 
gentle  natural  declivity  towards  the  sea,  where  they  had 
thrown  out  a  wooden  jetty  for  the  landing  or  embarking 
of  heavy  goods :  there  was  an  inclined  plane  made  and 
almost  finished  to  their  hand,  but  instead  of  finishing 
this,  the  Dadians — against  all  advice — must  needs  set 


606  TURKEY  AKD  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXXI. 

up,  at  an  enormous  expense,  a  lofty  stone  base,  and  a 
gigantic  crane  at  tbe  top  of  it  I  The  jetty  had  been 
thrown  out  at  the  very  point  where  it  ought  not  to  have 
been,  so  that  when  there  was  any  sea  nothing  could  be 
done  in  the  way  either  of  loadmg  or  unloading.  Here, 
too,  the  hand  of  nature  had  pointed  out  the  way  they 
ought  to  have  gone  to  work,  but  the  Dadians  were  as 
blind  to  nature  as  they  were  deaf  to  their  English 
engineers.  The  jetty  must  &ce  the  centre  of  ibe 
imperial  fiibrique,  for  the  sake  of  uniformity,  and  so  it 
was  here  I 

Their  plan  at  Zeitoun  Boumu  was  certainly  veiy 
bold  and  ambitious.  Not  only  were  all  manner  of 
goods,  hard  and  aoRi — penknires,  razors,  calicoes,  cotton 
stockings,  cannon,  ploughshares,  iron  railing,  iron  pipes, 
castings,  bits  and  stirrups,  lance-heads,  swords,  locks, 
and  padlocks,  etc.  etc.»  to  be  made  here,  but  iron  and 
steel  and  all  the  tools  to  be  used  were  to  be  produced 
on  the  spot,  instead  of  being  bought  as  heretofore  in 
England  and  Germany.  Everything  was  to  be  done  at 
home,  sur  la  place  1  Immense  sums  had  been  spent  in 
England  for  steam-enginea  and  o&er  machinery.  In 
the  Arntenian  philosophy  this  was  so  much  money  lost 
to  Turkey.  Now,  or  aa  soon  as  the  works  diouM  be 
finished  and  set  agoing,  all  these  steam-^ngines,  and  all 
this  costly  and  frequently  delicate  machinery,  were  to 
be  made  at  Zeitoun  Boumu  by  Grermans  and  Freaek- 
men  and  Armenians,  working  under  the  direction  and 
instruction  of  Mr*  Thorman,  his  brother,  and  a  few 
other  Englishmen.  These  foreigners  were  to  be  re^ 
tained  until  the  Armenians  had  learned  to  do  every- 
tiling  themselves,   and  then  Turkey  would  have   no 


Chap.  XXXI.        ECOLE  DES  ABTS  £T  METIERS.  607 

need  to  pay  high  wages  to  Franks.  I  was  told  that 
Hohannes  Dadian  hoped  in  three  or  four  years  to  be 
independent  of  foreign  assistance  and  free  of  every  one 
of  the  Franks  who  now  gave  him  so  much  trouble. 

There  was  also  to  be  at  Zeitoun  Boumu  a  School  of 
Arts  and  Mysteries — ^^Ecole  des  Arts  et  Mitiers^^ — 
wherein  mathematics,  chemistry,  geology,  mineralogy, 
drawing,  civil  engineering,  etc,  were  to  be  taught  to 
the  Armenian  natives,  and  to  young  Turks  on  the  most 
approved  principles.  All  the  instruments  and  appurte- 
nances of  a  Gabinetto  Fisico  had  been  purchased  in 
London,  Paris,  Berlin,  and  Vienna;  a  mountain  of 
French  drawing-paper  and  pencils  had  been  imported, 
and  our  American  friend,  Dr.  Laurence  Smith,  was 
provided  with  a  chemical  laboratory,  geological  speci- 
mens, and  the  nucleus  of  a  good  mineralogical  collec- 
tion. A  certain  number  of  young  Armenians  had  been 
receiving  pay  to  be  students  in  this  Ecole^  for  it  appears 
to  be  adopted  as  a  principle  in  Turkey  that  nobody 
will  study  unless  the  poor  Sultan  pays  him.  But, 
although  there  was  abundant  accommodation  in  the 
buildings  already  finished,  Ihis  schod  had  never  been 
opened  e:vcept  in  the  Constantinople  newspapers^  and 
nothing  whatever  had  been  done  by  the  students,  who 
were  now  dispersed  by  the  stop  put  to  their  pay.  Two 
unmannered  ignorant  young  men,  a  son  and  nephew  of 
the  great  Hohannes,  who  had  travelled  a  little  in  £u* 
rope,  were  to  be  head  professors  and  joint  presidents  of  the 
school^  in  which  positions  they  were  to  get  nishans  and 
high  salaries  from  the  Sultan.  Mr.  Sang  was  to  teach 
one  of  these  boobies  mathematics,  mechanics,  and  en- 
gmeering,  and  Dr.  L.  Smith  was  to  qualify  the  other 


608  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DBSTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

to  be  professor  of  chemistry^  geology,  tec.  Provided  he 
did  something  useful  for  his  pay,  Mr.  Sang  cared  very 
little  about  nishans  or  styles  or  honours,  but  he  had 
found  the  professor  he  was  to  make  so  indolent,  care- 
less, dull,  and  obtuse,  that  he  had  despaired  long  ago  of 
making  anything  of  him:  not  merely  did  he  £sdl  in 
getting  him  across  the  pons  asinarumj  but  he  broke 
down  in  teaching  him  the  rudiments  of  arithmetic  I 
believe  that  our  republican  friend  (a  younger  man  than 
Mr.  Sang)  was  more  ambitious  of  distinction,  or  less 
tolerant  of  having  his  plumes  worn  by  others,  and  that 
he  was  irritated  at  finding  that  his  to-be-professor  pupil 
pretended  to  know  as  much  as  himself;  for  quarrels  broke 
out  between  them,  and  after  he  had  furnished  an  apart- 
ment and  brought  his  implements  and  collections  to  Zei- 
toun  Boumu,  the  Dadians  wanted  to  get  rid  of  him  alto- 
gether by  sending  him  to  the  Arsenal  to  teach  chemistry 
and  geology  in  the  Naval  School.  But  the  pashas  at 
the  Arsenal,  who  wanted  Mr.  Sang  and  his  mathematics 
and  astronomy,  did  not  want  Dr.  Smith  and  his  che- 
mistry and  geology — and  would  not  have  him.* 

Some  of  the  expensive  machinery  brought  out  from 
England  was  lying  rusting  on  the  sea-shore  (close  under 
the  big  crane),  the  waves  washing  over  it  Whenever 
there  was  a  little  wind.  Other  articles  (every  one 
of  them  had  cost  good  money  I)  were  scattered  over  the 
vast  area,  which,  in  the  winter  time,  was  three  feet  deep 
in  mud.    One  of  Nasmyth's  expensive  steam-hammers 


^  Of  th6  ooimtless  mistakes  oodooimtfedy  Hoa  was  perhaps  the  most 
amnsmg.  They  wanted  for  their  foundry  a  aAope-carver,  and  got  a  Mp^ 
carver.  But  the  greater  part  of  the  mim  they  had  brou^t  cnit  had  been 
Just  as  useless  as  the  poor  ship-carver. 


Chap.  XXXI.      DESTRUCTION  OF  BiACHINERY.  609 

and  its  machinery  lay  scattered  all  about,  some  por- 
tions of  it  being  qaite  spoiled  and  other  component 
parts  carried  off.  There  had  been  a  regular  plunder  of 
brasses.  Nearly  every  bit  of  brass  they  could  lay  their 
hands  upon,  had  been  carried  off  by  the  Armenian 
workmen.  The  Dadians  had  been  allowed,  or  had  of 
themselves  assumed  the  authority  of  bastinadoing  some 
of  these  thieves,  who  had  been  caught  with  the  stolen 
property  upon  them ;  but  the  bold  remedy  was  applied 
too  late.  When  Mr.  Thorman  went  to  work  he  found 
that  something  was  missing  in  every  machine,  and  that 
some  pieces  of  machinery  had  been  so  despoiled  that 
they  could  not  be  put  together  until  the  missing  parts 
were  supplied  from  England.  Some  of  the  machinery 
which  he  had  set  up,  and  which  for  the  most  part  bore 
the  name  of  *^  W.  Fairburn,  Manchester,"  was  beautiful 
of  its  kind;  but  there  were  other  much-used,  almost 
obsolete  machines,  which  had  been  purchased  second- 
hand in  England,  and  charged  as  new,  and  at  fiiU  price, 
to  the  Sultan.* 

Care  was  taken  of  nothing ;  some  of  the  beautiful 
new  machinery  was  broken  or  deranged  before  it  had 
been  set  up  a  week.    Nobody  could  tell  how  this  was 

done ;  Mr.  T could  only  surmise  that  it  was  done, 

in  spite,  by  some  of  the  Armenian  working  people,  who 
got  very  little  pay  and  hated  the  Franks  who  had  good 
pay.  By  the  beginning  of  March  Mr.  Thorman  had 
lost  all  hope  and  heart     In  that  month  we  saw  a  few 


*  All  the  machinery  purchased  and  aent  oat  by  Mr.  £.  Zohrab,  the 
Ottoman  Gonaul-General  in  London,  vn&  new  and  excellent  of  its  kind. 
The  Consul  went  to  first-nte  English  houses,  and  paid  them  proper  jHices. 
It  was  Hohannes  Dadian  who  bought  all  the  rubbish. 

VOL.  n.  2  R 


610  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Cotf.  XXXI. 

Englishmen  and  Germans  at  work,  fitting  and  prepar- 
ing some  of  the  machinery.  As  Hohannes  had  found 
out  that  Grerman  files  were  cheaper  than  English,  a 
great  stock  of  them  had  been  provided ;  these  Grerman 
files  broke  in  the  hand,  and  were  driving  the  Englidii 
workmen  crazy.  The  German  artizans  were  smoking 
at  their  work,  and  tapping  and  rasping  like  so  many 
Turks  and  Armenians,  or  with  an  indolence  and  non- 
chalance not  to  be  surpassed.  They  did  not  receive 
half  the  pay  of  the  English ;  but  one  EngKshman,  once 
fairly  set  a-going,  did  more  work  than  three  of  them. 
There  was  an  almost  total  want  of  proper  took;  on  all 
the  premises  there  was  but  one  grindstone,  luid  iiiat  a 
very  bad  one. 

About  the  middle  of  March  all  the  building  opera- 
tions were  suspended,  some  of  the  Europeans  were 
dismissed,  and  most  of  the  Armenians,  getting  no  pay, 
absconded.  In  April  everything  was  at  a  stand-stilly 
and  more  of  the  foreign  workmen  took  their  departure. 
In  May  there  remained  only  some  half-dozen  ofEnglisli- 
men,  and  about  a  score  of  Germans,  and  of  these  the 
major  part — having  nothing  to  do — ^were  away  seeking 
amusement  in  Constantinofde  or  at  Macri-keui.  At 
the  end  of  May  (the  29th,  30th,  and  31st),  we  passed 
three  days  on  the  spot  with  Dr.  Smith ;  and  no  spot 
could  well  be  more  desolate.^     At  night  the  vast  in- 

*  On  the  29tli  Mr.  Thonnan,  for  the  first  time,  set  a-going  the  splendid 
English  steam-engine  ^diich  was  to  give  motion  to  all  the  varied  maohineiry 
within.  He  had  great  difficulty  in  procuring  water  enough  from  the  welL 
His  fire  would  not  draw,  for  the  Badians,  instead  of  allowing  him  to  build 
the  chimney  in  his  own  way,  had  insisted  that  it  should  be  built  on  a  pl«n 
of  their  own — these  bunglers  in  almost  every  case  pretending  to  \eoow 
better  than  the  engineers  they  had  engaged  to  instruct  and  direct  tbem. 
We  made  a  most  awful  smoke,  the  engines  made  a  few  revolatioDav  the 


Chap.  XXXI.    THE  IMPERIAL  MANUFACTORIES.  611 

closure  waa  as  lonely  and  ghostly  as  the  haunted  Acro- 
polis of  Selyvria,  and  here,  as  there,  owls  hooted,  cucu* 
vi^  screamed,  and  bats  flitted  in  the  moonlight  We 
were  barely  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  walls  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  but  in  all  that  near  part  of  the  city,  and  all 
along  that  range  of  landward  walls,  from  the  Fropontis 
to  the  Golden  Horn,  there  reigned  the  same  sadness 
and  desolation.  The  few  tenants  were  quite  lost  in 
these  immense  barracks.  We  rarely  saw  a  soul  after 
sunset  That  which  was  intended  to  be  a  Manchester 
and  a  Birmingham  put  together,  and  a  great  deal  more, 
was  a  desolation  and  a  waste — in  money  a  most  awful 
waste !  Even  in  the  daytime,  the  few  working  people 
who  remained  were  scarcely  visible  in  that  immense 
quadrangle.  And  in  this  forlorn  state  was  tiie  imperial 
Fabric  at  Zeitoun  Boumu  when  we  left  the  country  in 
July.  The  only  thing  we  saw  that  had  really  been 
made  on  the  premises,  was  a  big,  heavy,  ugly  cast-iron 
fountain  for  the  Sultan's  new  stone  palace  at  Dolma- 
Baghch^.  It  had  been  cast  some  time,  and  now  that  it 
was  finished  they  hardly  knew  how  to  carry  it  to  the 
palace,  it  was  so  very  heavy. 

At  the  imperial  Fabric  at  Macri-keui,   under  the 

placid  mani^ment  of  Mr.  H ^  they  continued  to 

make  a  few  toys  for  the  Sultan,  and  to  do  no  kind  of 
useful  work.  Af1:er  our  visit  in  January,  Dr.  Davis 
had  made  numerous  applications  and  entreaties  for  the 
ironwork  of  his  plou^s,  and  for  the  other  agricultural 


file  went  out— «iid  there  an  end !  I  dcmbt  whether  the  en^e  haa  ever 
been  set  going  ainoe,  aa  all  the  grtishes  have  been  wanted  to  enable  the 
Government  to  assume  what  is  facetiously  tenned  "  a  warlike  attitude  " 
UmAidB  Rnesia  and  Austria. 

2r2 


612  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap,  XXXI. 

implements,  which  by  the  Sultan's  orders  were  to  be 
distributed  among  the  farmers  of  the  country ;  but  in 
the  month  of  July  not  so  much  as  a  single  ploughshare 
had  been  forged  for  him.  Here  too  there  was  a  spa- 
cious inclosure  (though  nothing  like  that  of  2^itoun- 
Bournu)  closed  (in  front)  with  iron  railing,  and  there 
were  also  some  tolerable  workshops,  where  the  ma- 
chinery was  set  in  motion  by  a  steam-engine.  As  for 
the  iron-foundry,  which  had  been  intended  originally 
to  be  the  most  important  branch  of  the  establishment, 
they  had  placed  it  on  a  low  sandy  ridge,  so  low,  and  so 
close  to  the  Fropontis,  that  when  they  wanted  any 
depth  for  their  castings,  the  sea^water  oozed  in  upon 
them.  Their  first  attempt  to  cast  cannon  in  such  a 
place  was  well  nigh  being  attended  with  tragical  results, 
besides  the  destruction  of  the  building.  They  had 
given  that  up.  The  blasting-fiimace,  put  out  last 
autumn,  had  not  been  rekindled,  for  English  coals  cost 
a  good  deal  of  money,  and  not  the  slightest  progress 
had  been  made  in  digging  coal  in  the  country.  More- 
over, no  iron-ore  had  been .  brought  in,  except  a  few 
tons  which  had  been  taken  from  the  surface  at  the  near 
island  of  Frinkipo. 

The  Arsenal,  the  steam-navy,  and  the  imperial  Fabrics 
continued  to  use  English  coal ;  but  practical  men  be* 
lieved  that,  from  the  corrupt  way  in  which  all  things 
,  are  managed  in  this  country,  the  native  coal,  though  so 
near  at  hand,  would,  if  mined  for,  cost  the  Grovernment 
more  money  than  our  Newcastle  coal.  The  most  valu- 
able coal-fields  exist  at  Heraclea  on  the  Black  Sea,  not 
far  from  the  Bosphorus.  In  the  year  1841  some  Eng- 
lishmen attempted  to  obtain  a  lease  of  these  mines,  or 


Chap.  XXXI.    COAL-FIELDS  OP  SULTANA  VALIDl?.  613 

to  make  some  arrangements  whereby  they  might  work 
them  very  advantageously  to  the  Porte,  as  well  as  pro- 
fitably to  themselves.     Colonel  Williams,  R.A.,  Mr. 
Granville  Withers,  a  practical  engineer  and  forge-pro- 
prietor, and  Mr.  Anderson,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Oriental  and  Peninsular  Steam  Navigation  Company, 
visited  Heraclea,  and  examined  the  coal-beds.     They 
reported  that  the  beds  were  of  immense  extent,  and  that 
much  of  the  coal  was  of  excellent  quality ;  but  nearly 
everything  in  Turkey  ends  in  a  report.     The  Govern- 
ment would  not  listen  to  the  terms  of  the  Englishmen. 
A  great  deal  was  said  at  the  time  about  the  jealousy  of 
Austria,  who  has  some  coal-mines  on  the  Danube,  and 
the  jealousy  of  Bussia,  who  was  said  to  fear  the  increase 
of  the  Ottoman  steam-navy ;  but  the  real  truth  was  that 
the  promising  speculation  was  smothered  by  the  old 
Turkish  spirit  of  jealousy  and  monopoly.     These  coal- 
fields had  been  assigned  to  the  Sultana  Yalide,  who  was 
led  by  her  cher  ami,  Riza  Pasha,  to  believe  that  she 
would  get  nothing  from  them  if  Franks  had  the  working 
of  them.     I  believe  that  the  same  august  lady,  with  a 
few  others,  had  the  monopoly  of  all  the  coal  in  the  vast 
empire.     These  monopolies  have  all  been  abolished  and 
reprobated  in  proclamations  j^d  upon  paper,  but,  in 
reality,  many  of  them  exist  in  all  their  original  and 
pernicious  strength ;  and  in  most  of  the  cases  where 
they  have  been  shaken,  the  Armenian  capitalists  have 
succeeded  in  establishing  new  monopolies  of  their  own. 
I  was  assured  that  it  was  more  through  the  Armenian 
jealousy  than  from  any  other  cause,  that  every  offer 
made  by  Europeans  to  work  the  very  rich  copper  and 
rich  iron  mines  of  the  country  (paying  a  rent  to  Govern- 


614  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

menty  or  giving  a  pro  rcUd  duty  on  prodaction),  and 
forming  at  the  same  Hme  a  native  school  of  practical 
miners,  had  been  met  with  equivocation,  and,  in  the 
end,  with  a  flat  reiiisaL  When  the  Sultan  was  sorely 
in  want  of  money,  the  house  of  Rothschild  tendered  a 
large  loan,  asking  nothing  but  a  grant,  for  a  limited 
number  of  years,  of  some  of  the  copper-mines  on  die 
Black  Sea.  These  mines,  as  scratched  by  the  Turks, 
were  rendering  hardly  any  profit— in  some  instances 
they  were  worked  at  a  loss — but  the  Grovemment  ako- 
gether  declined  the  advantageous  proposal,  preferring 
to  finish  the  consumption  of  the  sacred  Vahmf  property^ 
to  farm  the  revenue  to  the  Armenian  seraffi,  and  to 
squeeze  more  money  out  of  the  impoverished  popula- 
tions. It  is  by  processes  like  these  that  the  Ottoman 
Government  has  kept  afloat,  and  has  avoided  tiie  burthen 
of  a  national  debt.  They  boast  that  Turkey  is  the  only 
country  without  such  a  burthen ;  but  there  are  far  worse 
things  in  the  world  than  national  debts,  and  ihey  have 
hit  upon  the  worst  of  all,  uprooting  all  security  of  pro- 
perty, outraging  the  laws  which  are  a  part  and  parcel 
of  their  religion,  destroying  man's  faith  in  man,  shaking 
and  clouding  his  very  trust  in  God,  and  reducing  all 
classes  to  one  dead  level  of  poverty  and  want ;  and  when 
they  shall  have  eaten  up  all  the  Vakouf  property  (of 
which  there  now  remains  but  little),  and  when  the  fiist- 
decreasing  Turicish  peasantry  shall  have  almost  disap- 
peared— quand  la  vache  ne  rende  plus — what  then? 
With  the  inexhaustible  riches  of  her  mines,  Turkey 
deals  as  with  her  teeming  soil :  she  will  not  and  cannot 
use  them  herself,  and  she  will  not  permit  their  use  to 
others,  though  she  herself  would  be  the  greatest  gainer. 


Chap.  XXXI.  IRON  AND  SILVER  MINES.  615 

In  both  cases  she  equally  plays  the  part  of  the  dog  in 
the  manger.  But  is  it  possible,  in  the  present  state  of 
the  world,  that  any  country  can  long  be  left  to  indulge 
in  such  a  humour  ?  * 

The  small  quantities  of  coal  that  were  brought  from 
Heradea  were  merely  scratched  from  the  surface.  We 
saw  some  very  good  iron-ore  brought  from  a  place  close 
by,  on  the  Sea  of  Marmora — from  Mai  Tepe,  on  the 
Asiatic  coast,  nearly  opposite  to  Frinkipo.  Samokovo, 
at  no  great  distancci  would  have  furnished  an  immense 
mipply ;  and  the  iron  from  this  place  was  said  to  be  ex- 
cellent for  conversion  into  steel.  At  Macri-keui,  or, 
as  the  worksVere  more  properly  called,  Baroutkhana 
(gunpowder-works),  they  had  made  some  steel,  but  they 
had  made  it  of  English  bar-iron.  This  too  was  shown 
to  the  Sultan  as  proof  of  the  {Hrogress  the  arts  were 
making! 

In  the  month  of  June,  Mr.  Phillips^  with  his  four 
Englishm^  was  still  tinkering  at  flie  iron  steam-boat, 
with  no  near  prospect  of  getting  her  finished,  and  with 
greater  doubts  than  ever  of  getting  her  afloat  on  the 
Propontis  when  she  should  be  finished*  The  creek  had 
now  shrunk  into  a  sti^nant  pestilential  pool,  which  was 
becoming  dangerous  even  in  the  day-time.    The  fin^ 

*  They  bave  rich  nlyer-inines  at  GumoBh  Khaneh,  in  Asia  Minor,  but 
they  know  not  how  to  nse  tiiem.  They  are  the  sonroe  of  i^jnstioe,  op- 
pression, forced  labour,  and  infinite  misery  to  the  people,  withont  being  of 
any  profit  to  the  Grovemment.  For  the  wretched  way  these  silver-mines 
ore  worked,  see  Mr.  Hatnilton'is '  Besearches  in  Asia  Minor,'  voL  i.,  and 
Bishop  Southgate's  'Narrative  of  a  Tour  through  Armenia,  Kurdistan,' 
&c.,  voL  i. 

The  silver-mines  at  Argyria  are  no  longer  worked  at  aB.  The  copper* 
mines  at  Ghalvar  and  other  ports  of  the  Asiatic  provinces  on  the  Black  Sea 
are  worked  in  the  rudest  and  most  unscientific  manner,  and  have  no  roadb 
leading  to  or  from  them. 


616  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,        Chap.  XXXI. 

engines  had  come  out  from  Messrs.  Maudslay  and  Field, 
but  Mr.  Phillips  had  given  one  size  or  scale  of  dimen- 
sions, and  the  Dadians  or  their  agents,  without  consulting 
him,  had  given  another;  and  now  he  found  that  the 
engines  did  not  fit  the  boat,  or  the  boat  the  engines  I 
He  doubted  whether  he  could  fix  the  engines  at  all :  he 
was  sure  he  could  not,  without  making  a  most  unsightly 
and  still  more  inconvenient  projection  on  the  deck  of 
the  boat.  Miscalculation  and  presumptuous  ignorance 
everywhere  I  Not  an  engine  was  sent  out  that  suited 
the  country-built  vessel  for  which  it  was  intended. 
Everything  was  begun  in  a  blunder,  and  ended  in  a 
blunder,  with  an  enormous  expense. 

Between  Zeitoun-Boumu  and  Macri-keui,  in  a  swampy 
hollow  near  the  sea,  and  the  choked-up  mouth  of  another 
creek,  they  had  erected  an  extensive  cotton-miU,  calico 
manufactory,  and  print-works.  As  they  had  chosen 
Zeitoun-Boumu  because  there  was  no  water  there,  so 
they  must  have  selected  this  spot  as  being  about  the  most 
unhealthy  that  could  be  found  I  Twenty  years  ago  I 
had  been  warned  not  to  pass  the  spot  after  sui^et,  lest  I 
should  catch  a  malaria  fever.  The  unhealtibiness  of  the 
place  was  most  notorious.  There  was  a  Turkish  farm- 
house in  it,  where  no  natives  had  been  able  to  live ;  but 
here  the  Dadians  would  have  their  works,  and  in  this 
very  farm-house  they  lodged  the  poor  people  they 
brought  out  from  Lancashire  to  manage  the  works. 
The  first  directors  were  two  brothers  of  the  name  of 
Duckworth.  The  elder  of  the  brothers  died  of  the 
fevers  in  loco ;  the  other  sailed  for  England  for  the  re- 
covery of  his  health,  and  died  at  Manchester  a  very 
short  time  after  his  arrival.     The  son  of  one  of  them. 


Cbap.  XXXI.         CALICO  AND  PRINT  WORKS.  617 

who  had  transferred  himself  to  the  village  of  Macri-keui, 
had  been  brought  to  death's  door,  and  was  still  suffering 
the  horrible  ills  of  a  thoroughly  deranged  liver.  This 
poor  fellow,  who  must  have  been  a  remarkably  hand- 
some young  man,  and  whom  I  always  found  sober  and 
Osgood  conduct  J  was  in  a  manner  chained  to  the  place, 
for  he  had  an  English  wife  and  three  or  four  little  chil- 
dren (bom  in  the  country)  with  him ;  and  the  prospect 
of  the  cotton*trade  at  home  (notwithstanding  the  Cobden 
holocaust)  was  not  then  very  alluring.  He  had  suffered 
cruelly  in  his  affections  and  in  his  own  health ;  and  if 
there  was  a  Frank  in  the  country  who  had  a  claim  on 
the  sympathy  of  those  who  had  brought  him  and  his 
family  from  their  homes,  it  was  John  Duckworth ;  yet 
the  Armenians,  after  subjecting  him  to  the  most  vex- 
atious irritating  treatment,  had  fastened  a  quarrel  upon 
him,  had  seized  English  printing-blocks  and  other  pro- 
perty belonging  to  his  deceased  father,  had  annulled 
their  contract,  had  dismissed  him  from  their  service, 
and  were  refusing  to  pay  him  his  arrears,  or  to  pay  him 
the  fair  price  for  the  goods  which  they  had  seized, 
partly  by  force  and  partly  by  putting  a  vile  trick  upon 
him,  which  in  itself  was  enough  to  exasperate  the  coolest 
and  most  placid  of  men.  For  nearly  twelve  months 
this  respectable  English  artizan  had  been  left  without  a 
piastre.  The  British  embassy  said  that  it  was  not  their 
business ;  the  British  consulate  said  that  they  could  not 
interfere,  as  he  had  entered  into  the  service  of  the  Turkish 
government.  His  memorials  or  petitions  were  for  a  long 
time  left  unanswered — unnoticed.  The  drogomans,  and 
such  understrappers  as  did  the  little  work  that  was  done, 
complained  that  he  was  very  troublesome.    Seeing  the 


618  TUKKBY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chai».  XXXI. 

poor  fellow  almost  crazy,  and  fearing  tiiat  he  would  go 
quite  mad,  like  his  neighbour  tiie  unfortunate  boiler- 
maker  (Walmsley),  I  spoke  myself  to  two  of  the  high 
functionaries  (Ferotes^  of  course),  and  was  told  by  both 
of  them  that  those  working  people  were  always  givins 
trouble  to  the  embassy  I  I  did  not  ask  these  fine  gentle* 
men  what  they  were  paid  for.  I  knew  that  one  if  not 
both  of  them  had  very  friendly  relations  with  the  Ar- 
menians against  whom  the  applicant  was  demanding 
justice. 

At  last  Duckworth  was  told  that  he  must  submit  to 
have  his  case  tried  by  the  mixed  commercial  Court, 
called  the  Tidjaret  Courty  which  was  presided  over  by 
the  corrupt  Biza  Pasha,  and  which  was  entirely  under 
ihe  influence  of  the  pashas  and  the  Armenian  seraffi. 
No  Englishman,  having  claims  against  the  Government 
or  against  the  Armenians,  had  ever  obtained  justice 
there.  It  was  notoriously  the  most  corrupt  den  that 
ever  took  to  itself  the  name  of  a  court  of  justice. 
Three  of  the  very  few  respectable  English  merchants  at 
Constantinople  told  him  that  if  he  submitted  to  be  so 
tried  his  condemnation  was  certain.  Duckworth  re- 
ported this  opinion  to  the  consulate,  saying  that,  having 
waited  so  long,  he  would  now  rather  wait  for  the  arrival 
of  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  who  would  never  consent  to 
see  an  English  subject  thus  wronged.  Witii  an  increase 
of  (^cial  insolence  and  arrogance  he  was  again  told  that 
be  must  be  tried  by  the  Tidjaret  He  was  accordingly 
so  tried,  and — oast  The  only  Englishman  who  sat  in 
the  mixed  tribunal  did  not  concur  in  the  verdict,  and 
told  me  afterwards  that  Duckworth  had  not  had  fair 
play;  but  this  merchant  had  extensive  dealings  with 


f 

II 


-*\ 


Chap.  XXXI.    TREATMENT  OF  MR.  DUCKWORTH.  619 

die  Armenians,  and  was  expecting  some  cxmtract  with 
the  Turkish  Government,  and  therefore  he  would  do 
nothing  to  provoke  ill  will* 

When  Duckworth  told  the  consul  that  he  had  been 
cast,  as  he  had  known  he  would  be,  he  received  the  com- 
forting assurance  that  there  was  no  appeal  against  the 
decision  of  the  Tidjaret  Court     Some  of  us  thought 

otherwise,  and  with  the  assistance  of  Mr. ,  a  practical 

man,  and  perfectly  acquainted  with  all  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  a  memorial  was  drawn  up  for  Sir  Stratford, 
who  was  then  daily  expected. 

In  this  bog,  at  these  calico  and  pint  works  (Bo&- 
makhana),  they  were  doing  hardly  any  work  with  the 
good  English  machinery  which  had  been  set  up.  This 
native  manufactory  was  to  be  supplied  by  raw  materials 
of  native  growth ;  they  were  waiting  for  Dr.  Davis's 
cotton  on  the  model  farm ;  the  doctor  was  waiting  for 
ginns  to  prepare  the  small  quantity  of  cotton  which  he 
had  secured  last  year,  and  for  the  means  of  cultivating 
that  which  he  had  sown  this  year,  and  which  was  now 
perishing  on  the  ground  for  want  of  labourers.  Most 
ai  the  men  who  ought  to  have  been  at  wcnrk  in  the 

*  I  had  strongly  ur^  another  British  naerchant — ^no  sham  or  protected 
subject,  hut  a  real  native  Englishman — ^to  attend  the  Court,  as  he  might 
have  done,  and  see  fiaJr  play.  He  was  selling  goods  to  Turks  and  Aime- 
nians,  B&d  would  not  go.  I  belieye  I  showed  some  warmth  of  feeling  at 
his  refusal.  "  What !  ^  said  he,  "  do  you  think  I  am  going  to  make 
myself  enemies  for  anybody  ?  You  have  no  right  to  expect  me  to  play 
Don  Quixote  for  Mr.  Duckworth.  Let  the  Embassy  or  Consulate  see  him 
righted  if  they  can.  Our  Government  never  ought  to  have  consented  to 
aubmit  English  interests  to  such  a  Court.     This  is  no  affair  of  mine." 

It  is  not  upon  li^t  grounds  that  I  hare  stated,  and  do  now  repeat,  that 
the  moral  atmosphere  of  this  place  has  the  effect  of  denationalizing  the 
British  character,  and  taking  from  it  its  impatience  of  injustice  and  op- 
pposnen. 


620  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXXI. 

factory  were  lounging  about  at  Macri-keui,  with  their 
hands  in  their  pockets.  Some  had  gone  home,  and 
others,  vexed  by  arrears  of  pay,  were  wishing  that  they 
had  never  come.  The  recently  imported  stocking- 
weavers  had  made  a  few  dozens  of  stockings,  but  their 
chief  (who  had  the  preaching  ^^call,**  and  who  had 
palmed  upon  the  ignorant  Dadians  some  worthless 
machinery)  had  pocketed  all  the  money  he  could,  and 
had  gone  back  to  Nottingham.  Being  a  rogue  in  grain 
— the  only  sort  of  man  fit  to  deal  with  the  Armenians 
— he  had  made  a  profitable  trip  of  it !  He  had  even 
succeeded  in  over-reaching  two  hungry  and  cunning 
Armenian  drogomans,  who,  as  a  reward  for  their 
exertions  and  influences  and  intrigues  in  getting  him 
his  money,  were  promised  a  high  per  centage.  The 
Nottingham  conventicler  gave  them  bills,  but,  just 
before  the  bills  fell  due,  he  and  his  money-bags  were 
gone. 

With  English  twist  or  cotton-yarn  they  had,  some 
time  ago,  made  some  pieces  of  calico.  A  few  Ar- 
menians were  now  working  upon  warp,  brought  out,  all 
ready  and  prepared,  from  England.  They  could  do 
nothing  without  the  warp.  In  the  same  way  German 
or  Belgian  warp  had  been  worked  up  in  the  imperial 
cloth  manufactory  at  Nicomedia,  and  the  calico  and 
the  £loth  thus  made  had  been  shown  to  Abdul  Medjid 
as  triumphant  evidence  of  the  progress  his  subjects 
were  making  in  manufactures  1  Nor  was  this  all  the  im- 
position played  off^  on  the  Sultan's  innocence :  removing 
the  marks,  they  had  exhibited  to  him  some  of  the  finest 
of  woollen  cloths  and  most  beautiful  chintzes  made  in 
France,   England,  Switzerland,  or  Germany,  as   pro- 


Ghap.  XXXI.      DECEPTIONS  ON  THE  SULTAN.  621 

ductioDS  of  his  own  infant  fabrics.  The  expenses  of 
these  calico-works  alone  must  have  been  very  high; 
for,  besides  the  spinners  and  weavers,  they  had  bleach- 
ers and  dyers,  pattern-designers,  block-cutters,  &c.,  all 
imported  from  England,  and  all  idle,  waiting  for  that 
cotton  which  Dr.  Davis  was  destined  never  to  give 
them.  This  mixture  of  roguery  and  stupidity  will 
appear  incredible ;  I  shall  be  suspected  in  England  of 
exaggeration ;  but  I  solemnly  declare  that  I  do  but 
state  the  facts  as  they  came  to  my  knowledge.  I  could 
refer  to  a  good  hundred  of  Englishmen  for  an  ample 
confirmation.  They  could  not  understand  the  motives 
of  the  Armenian  managers  any  more  than  I  did,  but 
they  saw  and  well  knew  what  were  the  results.  I 
devoted  much  time  to  my  inquiries ;  I  spoke  with  all 
manner  of  persons,  and  never  made  a  note  until  I  had 
well  sifled  the  matter.  A  great  deal  of  the  evidence 
came  to  me  through  my  own  eyes,  and  assuredly  what 
I  saw  between  January  and  July  was  decisive  of  the 
question,  leaving  no  doubt  of  the  misrule  of  the  Da- 
dians.  I  may  entertain  another  apprehension:  these 
details  may  be  found  tedious  by  many  of  my  readers ; 
but  this  system  of  manufactures  (where  nothing  is 
doing  for  agriculture)  forms  one  of  the  most  important 
chapters  in  the  history  of  reformed,  regenerate  Turkey ; 
and  there  are  many  in  England  to  whom  the  accounts 
must  be  deeply  interesting. 

There  was  another  and  somewhat  older  manufactory 
on  the  Gt)lden  Horn,  in  the  holy  suburb  of  Eyoub,  close 
to  the  water«^ide.  From  its  principal  production 
(fezzes  or  skull-caps)  this  place  is  called  ^^Fez 
Khaneh.**     It  was  the  only  one  of  the  fabrics  wherein 


622  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

there  was  any  order,  activity,  and  regularity.  It  had 
now  been  steadily  at  work  for  about  six  years ;  it  waa 
under  tbe  management  of  the  Catholic  Armenian  Dooz* 
Oglous,  who  seemed  to  manage  everything  far  better 
than  their  rivals  of  the  Eutychean  Church.  The 
nominal  director  was  a  certain  Guyungian-Hohannes- 
Aghk,  who  had  under  him  a  young  Catholic  Armenian 
named  Asnavour,  who  resided  on  the  spot,  and  who 
read  and  spoke  English.  But  the  great  merit  belonged 
to  Mr.  Langlands,  the  engineer,  a  very  clever,  steady, 
industrious,  most  worthy  man,  who  hailed  from  Perth. 
The  Doo9&-Oglous  had  had  sense  enough  to  trust  to  the 
discretion  of  this  excellent  Scotchman,  and  to  give  him 
full  powers  in  all  that  concerned  the  works.  Mr. 
Langlands  had  brought  into  decent  order  a  set  of  most 
disorderly,  slovenly,  Armenian  workmen,  and  he  had 
been  allowed  to  employ  a  good  number  of  intelligent 
Greeks.  The  Dadians  and  all  the  other  Eutycheans 
jealously  barred  out  the  Greeks  from  all  their  esta- 
blishments (and  this  in  spite  of  Reschid  Pasha's  grand 
amalgamation  principle).  At  Fezz-Khaneh  tibey  had 
Jews  as  well  as  Greeks.  This,  however,  must  be  said 
in  deduction  from  the  merit  of  the  toleration  of  tiiie 
Dooz-Oglous — the  Catholic  Armenians,  few  in  num« 
ber  compared  with  the  Eutycheans,  are  generally  in 
far  better  circumstances,  better  educated,  and  able  ta 
get  more  profitable  employment.  Mr,  Langlands  had 
fitted  up  all  this  machinery,  and  it  was  not  his  &ult 
that  a  portion  of  it  was  obsolete  and  very  bad.  The 
Dooz-Oglous  had  brought  some  of  it  from  England  and 
the  rest  from  Belgium.  He  had  six  mechanics  under 
him  to  keep  the  machinery  in  order ;  they  were  French- 


Chap.  XXXI.         MANUFACTOBY  OF  PEZZES.  623 

men  or  Belgians;  the  master  dyer  was  a  Belgian. 
Counting  men  and  boys  there  were  about  600  employed 
on  diese  works — Armenians,  Greeks,  Turks,  and 
Jews,  the  last  doing  the  commonest  and  dirtiest  parts 
of  the  labour.  The  men  were  paid  170  piastres  a 
month,  but  there  were  some  superior  hands  who  did 
piece*work,  and  who  could  make  from  8  to  10  piastres 
per  day.  There  was  also  out-door  work,  such  as 
sewing  on  the  crowns  of  the  fezzes,  &c^  which  was 
done  by  women.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  a  great 
many  poor,  squalid  women — Armenian  and  Greek — 
were  anxiously  waiting  for  a  distribution  of  work.  The 
poverty  reigning  in  the  holy  suburb  and  neighbourhood 
was  dreadftd ;  Mr.  L.,  who  was  familiar  with  its  details^ 
gave  me  instances  which  made  me  shudder,  and  nearly 
brought  the  tears  into  his  own  eyes.  Until  this  fabric 
was  set  up  the  fezzes  were  nearly  all  imported  from  the 
coast  of  Barbary,  principally,  I  believe,  from  Tripoli 
and  Tunis.  The  name  of  the  article  was  originally 
derived  from  Yeiz,  in  Morocco.  It  was  thought  that 
the  fine,  rich,  red  colour  could  be  imparted  only  in 
Barbary  or  Morocco  ;  but  the  dyeing  of  the  fezzes  here 
was  very  good,  although  critical  eyes  could  detect  an 
inferiority.  Now  that  they  are  worn  by  Mussulmans 
and  Rayahs,  and  form  the  sole  head-covering  in  use, 
from  the  Sultan  downwards,  the  consumption  is  very 
great.  If  the  Dooz-Oglous  had  stuck  to  their  fezzes, 
and  had  only  rendered  a  fair  account,  this  concern 
might  have  rendered  great  profits^  but  they  would 
superadd  a  manufactory  of  broadcloths,  and  go  into 
sundry  new-fangled  notions,  and  bring  out  machinery 
and  inventions  before  they  had  been  tested  in  Christ- 


624  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXI. 

endom.  Thus  they  threw  away  1600/.  in  buying 
machinery  for  making  felt  cloth ;  a  good  deal  more 
machinery  was  lying  in  the  cases  in  which  it  had  been 
sent  out ;  it  had  never  been  unpacked,  and  probably 
never  would  be.  The  weaving  of  the  longcloth  was 
but  flimsy ;  it  was  sold  at  about  the  price  at  which 
good  strong  English  cloth  (duty  paid)  might  be  pur- 
chased at  Constantinople.  It  was  chiefly  used  by  the 
Turkish  army  and  navy.  No  wonder  the  jackets  and 
trousers  of  soldiers  and  sailors  were  so  generally 
ragged  !  Before  the  establishment  of  this  cloth  factory 
at  Fezz-Khaneh,  there  was  a  fabric  at  Salonica,  called 
the  Fabric  of  IsUemia,  conducted  by  Armenians ;  it 
still  exists,  making  some  very  coarse  cloth  for  soldiers' 
greatcoats,  &c. 

Mr.  Langlands  had  been  more  than  ten  years  in 
Turkey,  and  had  been  a  most  attentive  and  competent 
observer  of  the  insane  efibrts  made  and  making  to  con- 
vert it  into  a  manufacturing  country.  Before  being 
employed  here,  he  set  up  the  English  machinery  for 
musket-boring  at  the  great  gun  manufactory  established 
at  Dolma  Baghche.  He  told  me  that  thsi  machinery 
was  already  in  ruin ;  and  that  when  it  was  new  and 
perfect  they  could  only  make  very  bad  guns  at  a  ven/ 
dear  price.  Two  things,  he  said,  must  be  fatal  to  the 
imperial  fabrics — an  utter  want  and  incapacity  of  oif;an- 
ization,  and  an  incurable  rage  of  the  native  workmen  to 
neglect,  derange,  or  break  whatever  machinery  came 
under  their  hands.  By  Turks,  likely  to  be  well  in- 
formed, I  was  assured  that  even  these  works  at  Fe»- 
Khaneh  were  carried  on  at  a  heavy  annual  loss. 

At  Beykos,  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus, 


Chap.  XXXI.         mPERIAL  MANUFACTURES.  625 

there  was  another  small  doth  factory,  with  a  leather 
factory  adjoining,  worked  and  managed  by  Turks  and 
Armenians.  The  site  was  very  unhealthy:  when  we 
visited  the  place  in  the  month  of  June  it  had  been 
visited  in  succession  by  typhus,  malaria  fever,  and 
cholera;  11  out  of  some  60  workmen  had  died  of 
cholera,  and  the  works  welfe  then  suspended,  though 
more  through  want  of  money  than  dread  of  death. 
Here  they  were  to  have  made  leather  for  shoeing  the 
entire  army  and  navy.  A  little  lower  down,  on  the 
same  side  of  the  Bosphorus,  near  the  village  of  Inghir- 
keui,  were  a  china  or  porcelam  manufactory,  and  a 
glass  factory,  which  had  been  destined  to  make  all  the 
porcelain  and  all  the  glass  wanted  at  Constantinople. 
But  the  original  dimensions  of  the  plan  had  been  cur- 
tailed, and  their  joint  work  amounted  to  a  very  small 
matter.  Machinery,  apparatus,  workmen,  were  all 
European,  the  few  natives  being  merely  coal-carriers 
and  labourers.  In  the  china  manufactory,  which  be- 
longed to  the  Sultan  and  his  mother,  there  were  eleven 
Frenchmen  and  one  Englishman  (an  engineer) ;  in  the 
glass  factory,  which  belonged  to  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha, 
there  were  fourteen  Germans  and  an  old  Englishman, 
who  was  foreman  and  chief  overseer.  The  coals  they 
were  burning  in  their  furnaces  were  Newcastle  coals ; 
they  had  been  at  a  standstill  for  want  of  fuel,  and  a 
supply  which  had  been  sent  them  would  last  only  a  few 
days,  at  the  end  of  which  they  would  all  come  to  an- 
other standstill.  Wages  and  other  expenses  would  go 
on  all  the  while.  There  had  been  a  constant  chopping 
and  changing  as  well  of  workmen  as  of  managers  or 
administrators.  Now  the  workmen  were  all  French, 
VOL.  n.  2  s 


636  TUEKEY  AND  ITS  BESTINT.         Chap.  XXXI. 

now  Italian,  now  German,  now  French  again,  now 
German  again ;  while,  in  the  administration)  there  were 
now  Turks,  now  Armenians,  and  now  Turks  again. 
Turk  or  Armenian,  every  director  seemed  to  have 
been  bent  upon  spending,  wasting,  or  plundering  as 
much  money  as  he  could  The  glass-works  were  neatiy 
at  a  dead  stop  already,  tHI  Germans  merely  making^ 
with  admirable  composure  and  slowness,  a  few  fimcy 
tumblers.  A  window-glass  furnace  had  fallen  in  Aree 
months  ago,  and  was  now  lying  in  ruins.  In  tb€ 
Turkish  quarters  of  Constantinople  not  one  house  in  a 
dozen  has,  as  yet,  the  comfort  of  glazed  windows ;  in 
Boumelia  a  pane  of  glass  was  a  rare  sight,  and  in  Asia 
Minor  we  never  saw  one,  except  in  the  very  best  houses 
in  the  large  towns.  If  the  manufactory  had  been 
honestly  conducted,  and  if  Achmet  Fethi  had  limited 
his  ambition  to  the  production  of  cheap  window^glass^ 
he  might  have  made  money  and  have  cMfenred  a 
benefit  cm  the  country.*  But  his  window-glass  furnace 
had  tumbled  down,  and  all  along  his  fabric  had  been 
chiefly  intended  for  fancy  goods  and  objects  of  mere 
luxury  and  ornament.  In  a  very  small  but  rather  neat 
warehouse  they  showed  us  the  glass  and  china  goods — 
ornamented  tumblers,  water-jugs,  drinking-cups,  coffee- 
cups,  ewers,  basins,  scent-bottles,  vases  for  flowers, 
fancy  inkstands,  and  nic-nacks,  all  pretty  enough  to 
look  at,  but  all  costing  three  times  what  superior 
French  or  German  articles  might  have  been  bought  for 
at  Constantinople.  Little  of  the  work  would  bear  a 
dose  inspection,  but  some  of  the  designs  were  Oriental 

*  The  cheap  bat  very  fragile  window-glass  in  use  is  imported,  chiefly 
from  Trieste. 


Chap.  XXXI.  DISCONTENTS  OP  THE  FRANK  WORKMEN.  627 

and  exceedingly  pretty.  But  what  was  this  but  a 
making  of  shirt-friUs  before  they  had  gotten  a  shirt  ? 
The  sand  which  was  used,  and  which  was  not  good,  was 
brought  from  the  Black  Sea ;  the  clay  came  from  some 
place  above  Buyuk-der^«  There  was  a  small  English 
steam-engine,  which  made  music  as  it  worked — a  con- 
trivance whidi  had  gained  old  Mr.  H great  honour 

and  renown.  The  Turks  would  stand  for  an  hour  at  a 
time  looking  at  this  toy,  and  listening  to  its  modulated 
ding-dong.  The  Frank  workmen  on  the  place — and 
we  saw  none  but  Franks — ^were  all  discontented  and 
gloomy ;  their  pay  had  been  so  irregular,  the  discom- 
forts of  their  living  so  great,  and  now  they  were  ex- 
pecting cholera,  which  was  raging  above  them  and  below 
them  on  the  Adatic  bank,  and  opposite  to  them  in  the 
European  villages. 

My  friend  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha,  brother-in-law  of 
the  Sultan,  was  also  a  brick  and  tile  maker.  He  was 
the  proprietor  of  clay-fields  and  kilns  in  the  valley  of 
Buyuk-der^  exercising  there  a  monopoly  alike  injurious 
to  the  people  of  the  country  and  to  his  own  purse. 
TherBy  was  the  only  bit  of  railway  that  existed  in 
Turkey.  To  carry  the  bricks  and  tiles  from  the  valley 
to  the  sea,  an  inclined  plane,  about  half  a  mile  in 
length,  had  been  smooihened  and  fiimished  with  iron 
trams  by  some  foreign  engineer.* 

These  are  melancholy  details,  but  the  story  of  the 
Sultan's  model  farm — the  end  of  the  only  good  begin- 
ning—was to  me  saddest  of  all. 

•  That  good  merry  old  missionaiy,  Mr.  Q ^  who  had  never  seen  a 

railroad  (having  left  America  before  any  were  begun),  waa  determined  one 
day  to  have  a  ride  npon  this,  in  order  that  he  might  say  he  had  been 
upon  a  railway. 

2s2 


628  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXL 

Through  want  of  the  necessary  labour.  Dr.  Davis 
was  even  later  in  planting  his  cotton  this  year  (1848) 
than  he  had  been  the  year  before.  When  the  cotton 
was  growing  there  was  nobody  to  attend  to  it  but  his 
four  negroes,  who  had  to  attend  to  everything  else  that 
was  done  or  attempted.  By  the  month  of  June  it  was 
quite  evident  that  the  crop  would  be  a  complete  failure. 
For  want  of  ploughs  (which  the  imperial  fabrics  would 
not  iurnish),  the  doctor  was  obliged  to  see  the  ground 
for  wheat  and  Indian  corn  turned  up  or  scratched  by 
the  common  wooden  ploughshares  of  the  country.  For 
want  of  pay,  his  Bulgarian  labourers  all  ran  away  in 
the  midst  of  this  operation.  Every  representation  to 
the  Turks  in  high  authority  had  been  as  useless  as  my 
application  to  Achmet  Fethi  Pasha.  Of  the  promised 
stock  for  the  farm,  none  came.  In  January,  February^ 
and  March,  the  Doctor  had  only  a  few  wretched  crawl- 
ing horses,  and  two  or  three  lean  common  cows  that 
did  not  give  milk  enough  for  his  own  family.  The 
brood  mares,  the  fine  stallions,  the  Syrian  cows,  the 
breeding  stock  from  England,  were  all  in  nubibus.  The 
farm  had  not  so  much  as  a  sheep,  but  the  flocks  of 
Boghos  Dadian  were  feeding  on  the  land.  These  flocks 
were  tended  by  Bulgarian  shepherds,  and  in  his  own 
adjoining  farm  Boghos  had  plenty  of  Bulgarian  la- 
bourers, when  the  Doctor  could  not  procure  one  to 
work  upon  the  Sultan's  farm.  Boghos  paid  the  men 
who  worked  for  himself  chai^g  such  outlays  to  the 
account  of  Dr.  Davis  and  the  model  farm.  In  the 
month  of  April  or  May,  the  Doctor  got  one  cow  of  the 
fine  Syrian  breed,  which  had  been  procured,  by  means 
unexplained,  from  our  grasping  acquaintance  the  Pasha 


Chap.  XXXI.       THE  SULTAN'S  MODEL  FARM.  629 

of  Brusa.  The  Doctor  had  provided  stabling  and  pro- 
vender for  fifty  cows  (to  be  stall-fed  in  the  bad  seasons), 
as  well  as  accommodation  for  a  good  stud  During  the 
preceding  year  he  had  made  a  deal  of  good  hay  where 
hay  had  never  been  made  before.  In  the  course  of  the 
winter  and  spring  the  Dadians  had  been  grabbing  at 
this  hay  to  feed  their  own  horses  and  the  horses  at  the 
two  imperial  fabrics  ;*  but  the  Doctor  had  kept  toge- 
ther a  good  quantity  in  expectation  of  the  stock — which 
never  came.  Of  course  the  Armenians  did  not  set  this 
hay  to  the  credit  side  of  the  farm  accounts.  In  the 
Doctor's  absence  they  had  helped  themselves  as  they 
chose ;  what  remained  had  only  been  saved  by  being 
stowed  away  in  lofts  and  outhouses,  and  put  under  lock 
and  key.  They  made  just  as  free  with  everything  else. 
Boghos  took  the  first  pick  and  choose  of  the  14,000 
trees  which  had  been  brought  over  from  Asia  Minor 
for  plantation  on  the  model  farm,  gave  others  away  to 
his  friends,  and  left  the  refiise  for  the  Doctor.  He  had 
labourers  to  plant  his  own  portion  when  our  friend 
(working  for  the  Sultan)  could  get  none.  I  have  men- 
tioned the  prospects  of  the  Doctor's  plantation :  in  the 
month  of  May  there  were  scarcely  six  of  his  trees  that 
showed  any  symptom  of  vitiJity ;  many  had  been  wil- 
fiiUy  destroyed,  and  the  rest  had  perished  from  the  bare 
want  of  necessary  attention.  In  this  particular  Boghos 
had  not  been  much  more  successfiil  than  himself.  At 
the  end  of  June  the  roads  which  the  Doctor  had  traced 
remained  only  traced.  In  the  winter  it  was  very  diflS- 
cult  to  ride  frx)m  the  village  up  to  the  farm  without 

*  Boghos  was  also  stabling  and  feeding  at  San  Stefano  a  number  of 
hones  belonging  to  bis  ally  Beschid  Pasha. 


630  TUBKET  AlH)  ITS  DESTINY.        Ghaf.  XXXI. 

being  bogged ;  in  the  summer  the  soil  was  burned  like 
an  Arabian  desert  The  Sultan  had  allotted  the  sum 
of  68,000  piastres  for  sinking  wellsy  making  fountains^ 
etc.  Not  a  well  had  been  begun ;  the  water  had  all  to 
be  brought  by  oxen  and  small  arubas  from  the  creek 
and  swamp  below,  at  the  distance  of  nearly  half  a  mile 
from  the  farm  buildings.  One  day  we  had  to  bring  up 
the  water  for  our  own  use,  as  t^e  arubajees  had  ab- 
sconded (not  being  paid),  and  the  poor  negroes  were 
overworked  in  other  business. 

For  want  of  the  means  of  irrigation,  a  large  garden 
which  had  been  inclosed  near  the  house,  and  nicdy  laid 
out  and  stocked,  was  all  parched  up  and  rendered  use- 
less by  the  middle  of  June,  when,  except  in  the  newness 
and  entireness  of  the  buOdings,  the  whole  of  this  impe- 
rial model  &rm  looked  rather  worse  than  better  titan 
the  usual  rim  of  Turkish  chifUiks. 

The  Doctor's  aim  had  been  to  have  280  acres  under 
cotton.  His  calculation  was  that  these  280  acres  would 
render  200  bales,  each  bale  consisting  of  350  lbs.  of 
clear  cotton.  Then  was  to  be  added  the  value  of  the 
cotton  seed,  which  in  this  country,  and  under  present 
circumstances,  might  be  considered  worth  nearly  as 
much  as  the  cotton.  He  had  been  pretty  confident 
that,  if  he  had  been  allowed  to  have  his  own  way^ 
he  could  pay  the  expenses  of  the  fiirm  this  year  out  of 
the  cotton  produce  alone.  But  cotton  requires  a  con- 
tinuous and  an  ahoays  controllable  labour,  and  his  la- 
bourers (save  the  four  South  Carolina  blacks)  were, 
like  his  stock,  in  nubUms. 

The  dwelling-house,  which  oaght  to  have  been 
finished  last  year,  was  not  habitable  until  the  beginning 


Chap.  XXXL       THE  SULTAN'S  MODEL  FARM.  681 

of  June,  and  then  it  was  a  comfortless,  rickety  affair, 
exhibiting  almost  every  possible  specimen  of  architec- 
tural blundering  and  bad  workmanship.  It  had  been 
all  in  vain  fer  the  Doctor  to  remonstrate ;  the  Arme- 
nians would  build  in  their  own  way.  I  should  not  have 
chosen  to  live  under  that  roof  in  the  season  of  the 
gales  from  the  Steppes  of  Tartary,  for  the  situation  was 
elevated  and  uncovered.  At  no  distant  day  some  such 
gale  will  level  it  with  the  ground,  and  howl  a  dirg^ 
over  it  The  length  of  the  farm  indosure,  from  the 
dwelling^iouse  to  the  last  outhouse,  was  1350  feet,  the 
breadth  varying  from  200  to  100  feet :  it  was  divided 
into  several  spacious  yards,  each  having  a  separate  en- 
trance. The  Doctor's  arrangement  of  offices,  stablings 
cowHstails,  poultry-yard,  bams,  and  outhouses,  was 
simple  and  excellent.  There  was  a  separate  place  for 
every  separate  thing.  But  every  place  was  void  and 
desolate.  All  the  poultry  consisted  of  a  dozen  or  two 
of  the  miserable  fowls  of  the  country.  There  was  a 
first-rate  dairy,  but  there  was  no  milk  I  There  was  no 
butter  in  the  country ;  strange  as  it  may  appear,  it  is 
true  that  the  Turks  have  not  yet  learned  the  art  of 
making  butter.  Besides  suppl}ang  the  Sultan's  house- 
hold from  his  own  farm,  this  dairy,  if  properly  sus- 
tained, might  have  sent  a  good  deal  of  butter  into  the 
Constantinople  market  The  foreign  embassies  and 
the  resident  Franks  alone  would  gladly  have  purchased 
all  that  could  be  sent  It  would  have  served  abo  as  a 
lesson  and  example  in  the  country ;  other  dairies  would 
have  risen,  and  all  would  have  found  a  market  for  their 
produce.  Thoi^  they  know  not  how  to  make  it,  the 
Turks,  as  well  as  the  Greeks  and  Armenians,  are  very 


632  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXL 

fond  of  butter ;  I  never  saw  a  man  in  the  country  but 
—on  having  the  opportunity  of  proof— enjoyed  our 
common  salted  Irish  butter  with  uncommon  zest. 
For  their  cookery  they  all  use  Odessa  butter,  or  tihat 
abominable  grease  of  which  I  have  so  frequently 
complained. 

By  far  the  neatest  thing  on  the  &rm  was  the  ginn* 
house  for  clearing  the  cotton,  and  this  had  been  in  good 
part  made  by  the  Doctor's  negroes.  Sw  good  ginns,  of 
English  make,  were  lying  rusting  at  Macri-keui^  but  it 
was  not  until  the  month  of  April  that  the  Doctor  suc- 
ceeded in  procuring  one  of  them.  The  negro  Joe  and 
his  mate  Ben  set  it  up,  for  no  assistance  could  be  ob- 
tained from  the  mechanics,  of  the  imperial  fabrics. 
When  the  ginn  was  ready,  there  were  no  hands  to  attend 
to  it,  for  the  four  negroes  were  then  most  wanted  in  the 
cotton-field.  The  small  quantity  of  cotton  which  we 
saw  go  through  the  ginn  was  of  excellent  quality. 
Some  bales  of  it  might  have  been  sent  down  presently 
to  the  cotton-mill,  where  so  many  people  were  wailing 
for  it ;  but  all  representations  were  fruitless — the  Doctor 
could  get  no  workmen.  He  had  told  some  unpalatable 
truths  to  and  of  Boghos  Dadian,  and  Boghos  was 
determined  that  the  whole  farm  should  be  made  to 
appear  as  a  &ilure,  and  the  Doctor  himself  as  iiie  cause 
of  the  failure. 

From  the  great  extent  of  ground  tiiey  covered,  and 
from  the  unusual  size  and  height  of  the  house,  the  frirm 
buildings  when  seen  at  a  distance  (particularly  from  the 
Propontis)  made  rather  an  imposing  appearance,  being 
seated  on  the  ridge  of  a  hill  which  sloped  gently  and 
gracefully  down  towards  the  creek  and  the  morass. 


■ '    1 1111^ 


Chap.  XXXI.       THB  AGRICULTURAL  SCHOOL.  633 

The  long  walls  of  the  inclosure,  being  newly  white- 
washed, looked  quite  smart.  But  these  stone  walls  had 
been  built  up  not  with  mortar,  but  with  non-adhesive 
mud,  a  little  mortar  being  merely  applied  externally. 
The  Sultan's  orders  were  that  they  should  be  solidly 
built,  and  of  the  best  materials ;  but  Abdul  Medjid 
(who  probably  would  not  have  known  mud  from  mor- 
tar) never  came  near  the  farm,  and  never  sent  to  make 
any  inquiries  about  it.  A  good  kick  or  two  would 
have  knocked  down  any  of  these  walls.  Without  such 
violence,  where  the  ground  was  uneven,  they  were 
already  cracking  and  opening. 

Last  autumn  and  winter  Dr.  Davis  had  finished  the 
sight  of  an  eye  in  compiling  the  lectures  and  lessons  for 
his  agricultural  pupils.  Instructions  had  been  given 
that  these  papers  should  be  immediately  translated  into 
Turkish  for  the  benefit  not  only  of  these  students,  but 
of  others ;  but  nothing  of  the  sort  was  done,  and  the 
manuscripts  remained  useless  in  the  Doctor's  desk.  To 
my  knowledge  at  least  twenty  applications  were  made 
for  a  katib  and  translator — some  of  these  applications 
being  addressed  to  the  Forte,  who  had  brought  the 
Doctor  from  his  country ;  and  had  at  first  paid  him 
such  high  honours.  There  were  several  changes  in  the 
young  men  selected  to  be  pupils  of  fbis  **  Agricul- 
tural School ;"  some  grew  weary  and  sick  of  the  solitude 
of  the  deserted  kiosk  by  the  sea-shore,  wherein  they 
were  lodged,  and  threw  up  their  appointments,  and 
went  home  to  Stamboul;  others  were  turned  out  to 
make  room  for  friends  of  Boghos  Dadian.  Greeks 
were  of  course  always  excluded ;  but  at  first  the  Arme- 
nians and  Turks  were  in  equal  numbers.     But  Boghos 


634  TUEKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Ciup.  XXXL 

wanted  to  get  rid  of  all  the  Turibs,  and  to  have  none 
but  Armenians,  and  not  a  Turk  would  have  been  left  if 
he  had  been  allowed  to  have  his  own  way.  InApril  there 
were  15  pupils,  nine  being  Armenians  and  nx  Turks. 
These  young  fellows  were  all  paid  by  iiie  Sultan,  some 
receiving  200,  some  300,  and  one  (of  course  an  Arma^ 
fiitm)  700  piastres  a  month.  They  had  their  lodging 
gratis,  but  they  had  to  bay  their  own  food.  Out  of  doors 
they  seemed  to  be  doing  then  just  nothing ;  we  never 
saw  one  of  them  at  the  farm,  in  the  ^cotton-field,  in  the 
garden,  or  indeed  on  any  part  of  the  &rm  lands.  Mr. 
N.  Davisy  with  the  aid  of  a  drogoman,  was  attempting 
to  teach  them  English ;  but  their  principal  occttpation 
was  smoking  pipes  at  a  cafinet  in  San  Stefano.  They 
were  described  to  me  as  being  not  only  very  lasy,  but 
very  loose  in  their  morals,  and]  by  no  means  attentive 
to  the  eighth  commandment.  In  June,  when  the  Doctor 
took  possessicm  of  the  &rm«house,  he  fitted  up  a  good 
class-room  for  them  on  the  basement  story,  providing 
them  with  books,  desks,  and  all  things  necessary,  and 
insisting  that  they  should  attend  regularly  from  8  AJi. 
till  4  pjtf.  But  by  this  time  the  number  of  students 
was  reduced  to  six  Armenians,  whose  saints'  days  and 
religious  feasts  were  constantly  interfering  with  their 
attendance.  When  they  came  they  brought  no  heart 
with  them,  for  they,  too,  were  feeling  the  money  pres- 
sure, and  were  getting  very  irregular,  uncertain  pay. 
One  of  them,  when  found  «deep  over  his  book,  told  the 
Doctor's  brother  that  a  hungry  belly  could  not  learn 
English ! 

We  watehed  these  promismg   agricidtaral  stadents 
day  after  day ;  they  never  stirred  out,  saying  ii^  the 


Ohap.  XXXI.    MALABU  AT  THE  MODEL  FABM.  635 

weather  was  too  hot,  and  in  the  school-room  the  greater 
part  of  their  time  seemed  to  be  spent  in  sleeping  or 
dozing.  Looking  upon  tchibouques  as  the  great  carse 
of  the  country,  promoting  idleness  and  muddling  the 
brain,  the  Doctor,  who  had  destroyed  a  good  many  of 
them  on  the  farm,  strictly  prohibited  the  use  of  them 
at  the  farm-house ;  but  his  pupik,  who  could  not  live 
without  smoking,  brought  their  tobacco  with  Ihem,  and 
made  paper  cigars.  On  some  occasion  the  Doctor  had 
broken  the  pipes  over  the  heads  of  his  lazy,  scolking 
labourers,  and  once  or  twice,  provoked  by  their  perver- 
sity and  doggedness,  he  had  applied  the  lash  of  his 
riding-whip  to  their  backs.  A  clever  but  most  roguish 
drogoman,  whom  he  had  discharged  as  an  incurable 
liar,  said  to  me  one  day,  '^  It  is  very  lucky  for  Dr. 
Davis  that  there  is  not  a  tree  or  a  bush  hereabout ;  if 
there  were  any  cover  he  would  soon  have  a  bullet 
through  his  head — he  would  soon  find  what  it  is  fo 
brecJ:  men*s  pipes  r 

I  did  not  expect  its  vintation  quite  so  soon,  but  I 
was  quite  sure  that  &e  malaria  demon  was  brewing 
mischief  in  the  swampy  hollows  below  the  &rnu  Morn- 
ing and  evening  those  hollows  were  filled  with  cold  grey 
vapours,  and  a  Fontiue-marsh  or  Marenuna  smell  came 
up  to  the  house.  I  had  repeatedly  warned  my  friend, 
but,  having  fiimished  his  hcmse  and  made  it  comfortable, 
he  dung  to  the  belief  that  its  airy  and  elevated  situa- 
laon  would  be  a  preservative.  I  was  sure  it  would  not, 
for  it  is  precisely  on  such  low-lying  hills  that  malaria 
in  the  Soudi  of  Italy  is  most  destructive.  I  trembled 
fi>r  the  children — as  pretty  a  young  fiunily  as  the  heart 
of  a  fiither  could  rejoice  m.    On  the  26th  of  June, 


636  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,         Chap.  XXXI. 

leaving  his  family  all  well,  the  Doctor  came  to  us  at 
Pera  to  proceed  with  us  to  pay  a  visit  at  Buyuk-dere 
to  Mr.  Carr.  We  returned  together  to  the  farm  on 
the  27th — a  broiling  hot  day — and  there  found  Mrs. 
Davis  shivering  and  suffering  from  intense  headache. 
The  fever  had  taken  her  in  its  grip  yesterday.  We 
stayed  four  days,  and  departed  without  any  ill  conse- 
quences to  ourselves,  but  leaving  our  kind,  most  amiable 
hostess  in  a  state  of  dreadfiil  suffering.  It  was  our  last 
vi«it  to  the  accursed  spot 

A  day  or  two  afterwards  two  of  the  dear  children 
were  seized ;  and  then  the  Doctor,  who  had  not  been 
quite  one  month  in  the  house,  fled  from  it  with  his 
family.  The  invalids  were  carried  down  to  the  sea- 
shore, where  they  all  got  into  a  caique,  which  conveyed 
them  to  Buyuk-dere.  In  the  state  of  the  Doctor's  own 
health  and  spirits  his  friends  were  afraid  that  an  attack 
would  have  been  fatal  to  him.  Almost  from  the  day  he 
set  his  foot  in  the  country  he  had  been  kept  in  a  con- 
stant fret,  and  of  late  his  annoyances  had  been  insup- 
portable, for  everything  that  he  had  attempted  had 
been  made  to  go  awry,  and  the  Dadians  were  casting 
upon  him  all  the  weight  of  their  own  mingled  folly  and 
guilt.  Constantinople  was  ringing  with  reports  of  the 
enormous  sums  which  had  been  thrown  away  at  the 
model  farm.  These  reports  were  traced  directly  to 
Boghos  and  Hohannes  Dadian,  and  their  creatures, 
whose  name  was  Legion.  Remonstrances  were  sent  in 
to  the  Government,  but  they  produced  no  visible  effect. 
With  others  I  spoke  to  some  of  the  Turks  connected 
with  government,  putting  them  in  possesion  of  many 
startling  facts.     They  confessed  that  it  was  a  hard  case, 


Chap.  XXXI.  DR.  DAVIS'S  CLAIMS.  637 

they  dedared  that  they  knew  the  Dadians  to  be 
blunderers  and  robbers,  capable  of  any  falsehood  and 
malice ;  they  said  they  believed  that  their  hour  of  re- 
tribution must  come,  that  they  could  not  much  longer 
escape  the  consequences  of  their  gross  mismanagement 
and  peculation ;  but  in  the  meantime  they  were  sup- 
ported by  the  great  pashas,  around  whom  they  had 
woven  a  strong  web.  One  of  these  Turkish  gentlemen 
said,  "  If  these  things  had  happened  under  Sultan 
Mahmoud,  these  Armenians  would  surely  have  lost 
their  heads,  but  now  the  worst  that  will  happen  to 
them  will  be  a  sudden  disgrace  and  a  safe  flight.'"  But 
none  of  these  Turkish  gentlemen  who  spoke  so  freely 
with  us,  could  venture  to  talk  of  the  subject  with  the 
heads  of  government,  or  do  anything  more  in  the 
matter  than  pity  Dr.  Davis  and  his  family,  and  pour 
maledictions  on  the  heads  of  the  Dadians.  Mr.  Garr, 
as  American  Minister,  sent  an  indignant  remonstrance 
to  Reschid  Pasha,  who  was  now  restored  to  power,  and 
to  Ali  Pasha,  who  had  resumed  his  post  as  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs.  Ali  Pasha  had  signed  the  Doctor's 
contract,  and  the  Vizier  had  feasted  the  Doctor  on  his 
arrival,  and  fiilled  his  ear  with  professions  and  promises ; 
but  from  that  moment  neither  of  them  had  paid  the 
least  attention  to  the  Doctor,  or  had  taken  the  least  heed 
of  the  model  &rm,  on  which  they  knew  great  sums 
were  expended.  Mr.  Carr's  drogoman  was  told  viva 
voce^  tiiat  the  Porte  was  iJien  occupied  with  the  most 
serious  affidrs ;  and  no  other  answer  was  given  while  we 
remained.  Long  before  this  the  Doctor's  best  friends  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  coiirse  he  could 
pursue — the  only  chance  of  recovering  his  health  and 


938  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DBSTINT.        Ghap.  XXXT, 

tranquillity — iras  to  come  to  a  compromise  with  the 
Porte  (who  had  ^igaged  him^  and  implored  the  Ame- 
riean  p>Tenm«it  to  send  him),  to  take  aoeh  a  sum  of 
money  as  he  could  get,  and  return  home.  He  had 
been  engaged  for  a  term  of  seven  years,  two  of  which 
had  now  expired.  His  salary  was  a  very  high  one,  but 
it  had  beea  most  irregularly  and  grudgingly  paid,  and 
it  was  now  in  long  arrears.  The  experience  of  this,  his 
second  season,  destroyed  every  hope,  and  the  illness  in 
his  family  now  determined  him  to  adopt  the  course  re- 
commended to  him«  He  was  staunchly  supported  by 
his  minister  and  friend.  When  we  took  our  leave  of 
them  Mr.  Garr  was  going  to  put  on  his  harness  and  call 
upon  the  Gbrand  Vizier.  If  Reschid  Pasha  would  not  do 
justice,  he  was  resolved  to  seek  an  audience  of  the 
Sultan  himself  and  to  expose  the  whole  affitir  throu^ 
the  mouth  of  his  own  drogoman,  who  was  not  a  native 
of  Fera  (as  ours  are),  but  an  American  citizen.  In  the 
course  of  a  few  months  a  good  compromise  was  effected, 
Abdul  Medjid  paid  a  liberal  indemnity,  and  in  the 
spring  of  this  year  (1849)  Dr.  Davis  and  his  &mily 
most  ^adly  quitted  Turkey  for  ever,  and  returned  to 
their  own  country.  So  ended  this  attempt  at  agricul- 
tural improvement,  which,  altc^ether,  had  cost  liie 
Sultan  about  35,0002.  of  our  money. 

The  Dadians  have  put  in  a  creature  of  their  own — 
an  ignorant  Armenian — to  manage  what  is  left  of  the 
concern,  and  Abdul  Medjid's  Model  Farm  at  San 
Stefano  is  now  in  the  same  wretched  condition  as  the 
neighbouring  chiftliks,  or  as  that  other  ^*  Model  Farm " 
by  Ambarli,  of  which  Boghos  so  opportunely  relieved 
Reschid  Fasha,  giving  that  immaculate  minister  75,000 


CsAP.  TYYT     DB.  DAYB  BETUBNS  TO  AMERICA.  639 

piastres  a  year  for  what  was  not  worth  a  tenth  of  the 
rent.* 

*  The  text  was  written  seyeral  months  ago.  I  have  no  very  leoent 
letter  from  Constantinople,  but,  according  to  a  letter  publisbed  in  the 
'Times'  in  the  month  of  Janotfy,  1850,  the  dynasty  of  the  Bsdiaiis  has 
fallen  into  serious  trouble,  being  aocused  of  gross  and  monstrous  peculation, 
and  haying  all  their  disooyerable  property  sequestrated.  I  cannot  answer 
for  the  accuracy  of  the  report ;  I  do  not  know  whether  these  yery  worst  of 
all  the  bad  Armeniana  may  not  arrange  matters  as  they  did  in  1848 ;  but  I 
retain  my  belief  that  their  hour  wUl  come,  and  that  they  must  in  the  end 
be  fogithraa  and  outcasts. 


640  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DE8TIKT.       Cbat.  XXXn. 


CHAPTER  XXXn, 

Constantinople  —  The  Fleet  —  Recroits  for  the  Army  —  State  of  Trade 

—  The  Tidjaret  Court  —  Case  of  Mr.  W K .  —A  Judge  Elect 

at  the  Tidjaret  —  Usual  Composition  of  that  Court  —  Mr.  Langdon,  of 
Smyrna,  and  his  Emery-mine  —  Diplomatic  Blunder  —  Faithkasness 
of  the  Porte — Further  Proofs  of  the  Decline  of  the  Mussulman  Religion 

—  Pilgrimage  to  Mecca  —  Insecurity  of  Property  to  Franks  —  Buyuk- 
der^  —  Great  Pent  Fire  of  June,  1848  —  The  Great  Pashas  as  Firemen 

—  Ko  Fire  Insurance  —  ArriTid  of  Sir  S.  Canning  —  A  Bit  of  Diplo- 
matic History  —  General  Aupick,  the  Ambassador  of  the  Frendi 
Republic —  Political  Reflections  —  Final  Departure  from  Constantinople 

—  Smyrna  —  Home  1 

On  out  return  from  Adrianople  ihe  fleet  was  equipped 
and  Ijring  at  anchor  in  the  Bosphorus,  between  the 
Serraglio  Point  and  the  Sultan's  palace  of  Tehiraghan. 
It  did  not  exceed  the  force  of  a  good  squadron,  for  they 
had  wisely  abandoned  the  project  of  fitting  up  some  of 
the  rotten  old  ships.  There  was. a  considerable  display 
of  warlike  preparation;  recruits  for  the  i^*my  were 
brought  over  from  the  already  depopulated  villages  of 
Asia  Minor.  Many  of  these  poor  ra^ed  fellyws 
deserted  as  soon  as  they  were  let  loose ;  but  others^  who 
had  been  starving  at  home,  seemed  contented  enough  to 
stay,  for  here  at  least  they  got  tolerably  good  rations. 

Trade  was  jh  a  deplorable  state ;  except  those  who 
had  contracts  with  government,  none  of  the  commercial 
houses,  native  or  foreign,  had  any  business.  The  scarcity 
of  money  was  even  more  alarming  than  when  Sarim 
Pasha  threw  up  the  finances  in  despair.     Those  who 


Chap.  XXXTT.  THE  TIDJARET  COURT.  641 

had  payments  to  receive  from  the  goyemment  had  to 
ran  to  the  Forte  day  after  day,  to  intrigue,  to  hribe, 
and  almost  to  fight  with  one  another  for  their  money. 

The  Tidjaret  or  Commercial  Court  had  now  more 
suits  and  more  business  than  ever,  for  the  agents  of 
government  were  constantly  breaking  contracts  they 
had  made ;  and  native  merchants,  alarmed  at  the  state 
of  the  markets,  were  breaking  their  bargains  and  taking 
refuge  in  chicane  and  in  that  most  unfair  court.  But 
although  most  active  .in  May  and  June  (on  account  of 
the  difficulties  and  alarms  caused  by  revolutions  and  a 
most  absurd  armament),  the  Tidjaret  had  not  been  idle 
in  the  preceding  months.  Whenever  a  Levantine  trick 
was  to  be  played,  people  had  recourse  to  it,  and,  as  far 
as  my  information  went,  no  Levantine  ever  failed  in  ob- 
taining his  object  when  a  British  subject  was  concerned. 

In  the  month  of  January  there  was  a  great  dearth  of 
English  coal,  as  well  as  of  native  charcoal :  coals  were 
wanted  for  the  Turkish  steamers  and  for  the  Arsenal — 
the  want  was  immediate  and  most  serious.     Mr.  W. 

Kr y    an    English    merchant    long  established    in 

.Galata,  had  two  cargoes  at  hand.     Petmez  Oglou,  an 
agent  for  purchases  and  a  general  jobber  to  the  Arsenal, 

applied  to  Mr.  K and  entered  into  a  ccmtract  with 

him  for  these  two  cargoes  and  for  several  other  cai^oes 
of  Newcastle  coal.  In  the  course  of  February  the  two 
cargoes  were  delivered,  another  cargo  came  in,  and 
others  were  on  their  way  from  England,  »the  shippers 
relying  on  the  contract  But  suddenly  and  unex- 
pectedly a  little  fleet  of  colliers  came  up  the  Dardanelles 
and  brought  down  the  price  of  coals.  Petmez  Oglou 
would  no  longer  abide  by  the  bargain  he  had  made ;  he 

VOL.  II.  2  T 


r 


642  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXXII. 

would  not  eren  pay  the  stipulated  price  for  the  coals 
which  had  been  delivered ;  he  would  take  no  more  coals 

from  Mr.  K unless  he  gave  them  at  the  price  rwio 

current  When  the  contract  and  his  own  signature 
were  shown  to  him,  he  laughed  at  both.  At  first  he 
agreed  to  submit  the  matter  to  the  arbitration  of  two 
merchants ;  but  he  soon  refused  to  do  this,  and  defied 

Mr.  K to  a  contest  mtii  him  in  the  Tidjaret 

Our  friend  knowing  of  old  the  nature  of  this  Court,  aad 
being  perfectly  sure  that  neither  he  nor  any  other  man 
had  a  chance  in  it  against  an  agent  of  die  government, 
did  what  he  could  to  avoid  bringing  his  action  and  to 
get  the  business  settled  in  some  more  equitable  way. 
He  applied  to  our  consul-general,  who  told  him  that  he 
could  not  choose,  that  by  our  last  commercial  treaty 
with  the  Porte  all  civil  suiiB  or  trade  questions  must  be 
judged  in  that  Court,  and  that  to  the  judgment  of  the 

Tidjaret  he  must  of  necessity  submit     Mr.  K was 

driven  into  that  limbo  in  the  month  of  March,  and  diere 
Fetmez  Oglou  triumphed  over  him  in  spite  of  his 
signature  and  contract  The  English  merchant  had 
then  to  inform  his  correspondents  at  home — ^the  disap- 
pointed shippers  of  the  coals — tliat  contracts  at  Con- 
stantinople signified  nothing  when  purchasers  chose  to 
break  them,  and  so  long  as  the  authority  of  the  Tidjaret 
Court  was  acknowledged  by  our  Government 

There  were  other  and  much  harder  cases  of  which  I 
took  no  notes.  In  theory  this  iniquitous  Court  had  not 
so  bad  a  look.  It  was  to  be  composed  partly  of  Turks 
and  partly  of  Christian  Frank  merchants,  English, 
French,  Russian,  Austrian,  or  any  other  nation,  all 
being  men  of  good  credit  and  standing  in  the  place,  and 


Chap.  XXXH.  THE  TTDJARBT  COURT.  W3 

each  having  a  voice  and  vote.  But  when  it  came  into 
operation,  the  really  respectable  merchants  (always  a 
very  limited  number  in  Constantinople)  were  presently 
scared  away  by  the  foul  play  it  exhibited.  These  men 
refused  to  attend — ^which  was  precisely  what  the  Turks 
and  their  Armenian  agents  wished  them  to  do.  Except 
on  very  rare  occasions  not  one  of  these  respectable,  true 
Franks  had  taken  any  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
Tidjaret  for  many  months.  An  English  gentleman  told 
me  he  would  as  soon  think  of  going  into  a  den  of 
thieves ;  a  native  Frenchman  expressed  the  same  senti- 
ment in  language  much  more  energetic;  an  honest 
German  said  that  he  had  attended  until  he  was  abso- 
lutely sick  at  the  sight  of  injustice.  The  Turks  and 
Armenians  (the  Armenians  having  most  to  do  with  the 
Court)  filled  up  the  places  of  these  Frank  merchants 
by  Levantine  traffickers  and  jobbers  and  adventurers, 
natives  of  the  country,  who  by  fair  or  by  foul  means 
had  obtained  foreign  protection,  and  were  allowed  to 
enjoy  the  privileges  and  call  themselves  by  the  names 
of  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Russians,  Austrians,  Sar- 
dinians, etc.  Several  of  these  precious  administrators 
of  justice  were  bankrupt  discredited  men  when  they 
obtained  their  seats,  but  were  now  in  very  flourishing 
circumstances.  Their  services  were  of  course  gnxr 
tuitoua ;  they  attended  the  Court  solely  for  the  sake  of 
justice;  there  was  no  pay  whatever — the  rogues  only 
filled  their  pockets  with  direct  bribes  or  with  indirect 
gains,  the  master  spirits  of  the  Tidjaret  being  always 
able  to  put  some  profitable  job  or  other  in  their  way. 
Their  position  was  considered  a  most  enviable  one ;  to 
get  a  good  footing  in  that  Court  was  looked  upon  as 

2  t2 


644  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXXTT. 

equal  to  a  fortune.  There  was  one  Frankified  Perote, 
a  scion  of  an  Armenian  stock  (a  stock  which  had  con* 
tained  some  very  differing  elements),  whom  I  knew  now 
and  whom  I  had  well  known  twenty  years  ago,  when 
the  worst  charges  that  could  have  been  brought  against 
him  were  ignorance  and  stupidity.  This  man  had 
wasted  his  means,  had  thrown  away  his  honourable 
chances,  and  had  run  a  career  of  extravagance,  folly, 
and  vice ;  to  be  of  a  respectable  family,  with  good  con- 
nexions, he  was  about  the  worst  famed  man  there ;  even 
in  Pera  and  Galata,  where  few  people  are  very 
squeamish,  there  were  many  who  gave  him  the  cold 
shoulder.  He  had  married  in  succession  three  or  four 
wives,  who  were  all  living.  How  he  had  contrived  to 
live  for  some  years  was  a  mystery  to  those  who  did  not 
know  his  wonderful  dexterity  in  cheating  and  all  sorts 
of  jobbing.  He  was,  however,  rather  irequently  in 
verT  low  water.  A  few  mombgs  beforTour  final 
departure  he  came  radiant  with  joy  to  our  Pera  land- 
lord- "  Tutto  va  bene  r  "  It  is  all  right,'*  said  he,  "  I  am 
to  have  a  seat  in  the  Tidjaret ;  I  am  provided  for  at 
last !" 

The  men  who  were  most  constant  in  their  attendance 
in  Court,  and  in  whom  the  Turks  and  Armenians  most 
relied  on,  were  *  *  ♦,  a  Greek  under  Russian  protec- 
tion, frequently  doing  commercial  business  with  the 
Porte.  ♦  *  ♦,  an  Hellenic  subject  and  a  very  great 
rogue.  *  *  *,  ditto ;  ♦  *  *,  a  Greek,  with  Austrian 
protection ;  ♦  ♦  *,  Greek,  with  Russian  protection ;  and 
*  *  *,  an  Aleppine  and  Rayah  subject,  upon  whom 
the  Porte  most  of  all  relied.  These  sham  representa- 
tives of  Frank  merchants  were  mixed  with  Mussulmans 


■*■   —  —       —H     I  ■!  ^'"-^ Jl*.  ».i    ■■    »1  H.      " 


Chap.  XXX  fJ.  THE  TIDJARET  COUBT.  645 

and  Armenians,  whose  interests  were  one  and  the  same 
and  who  always  formed  a  majority.  The  proceedings 
were  in  the  Turkish  language,  and  always  hurried  and 
confused  and  most  irregular.  Even  the  outward  and 
simple  forms  of  justice  were  constantly  outraged  in  a 
manner  that  horrified  Europeans.  This  Court  was 
presided  over  by  Riza  Pasha,  who  had  been  stigmatized 
by  the  Grand  Vizier  Reschid  himself  as  the  most  corrupt 
of  public  men,  and  as  a  functionary  in  whom  it  was 
impossible  to  put  any  trust  Reschid  Pasha,  however, 
had  not  been  able  to  put  his  fallen  rival  entirely  on  the 
shelf;  the  gentle-hearted  Sultan  shrunk  from  extreme 
or  harsh  measures,  and  was  always  for  conciliating  Biza 
and  Reschid ;  Riza  was  still  strong  in  the  support  and 
undiminished  favour  of  the  Sultana  Valide,  and  thus 
when  Reschid  was  promoted  to  be  Grand  Vizier,  Riza 
was  made  Minister  of  Commerce,  with  the  Presidency 
of  the  Tidjaret  Court  and  a  monstrous  salary.  But 
Riza  felt  himself  degraded  in  this  post,  and  was  con- 
stantly showing  his  disgust  by  the  irregularity  of  his 
attendance  or  by  going  to  sleep  in  Court  It  appeared 
to  us  that  the  Court-days  were  never  regularly  held. 

I  was  going  over  to  it  with  Mr.  W.  K on  the  16th 

of  March,  when  his  cause  was  to  be  heard,  but  we  were 
told  that  no  Court  could  be  held  that  day.  On  this 
occasion  there  might  be  some  slight  excuse  for  the 
irregularity,  as  the  excitement  occasioned  by  the  Paris 
revolution  of  February  was  yet  fresh  and  violent,  and 
driving  most  people  out  of  their  senses.  But  I  tried 
several  other  days  when  the  Court  was  appointed  to 
meet,  and  each  time  there  was  the  same  irregularity. 
The    hall   of    justice    was    over   in    Constantinople, 


646  TUBKET  AND  ITS  DESTINT.       Ghap.  XXXn. 

soiiiewhere«near  the  old  madhotifle,  I  believe.  I  was 
assured  that  the  Court  when  assembled  looked  like  a 
gang  of  banditti,  the  members  compofiiDg  it  being 
remarkable,  even  in  Constantinople,  for  the  villainous 
expression  of  their  countenances.  In  a  Court  like  this 
British  interests  have  been  and  are  shamelessly  violated, 
usually  without  any  advocacy  or  protection,  except  such 
as  may  be  afforded  by  a  Perote  drogoman,  a  delegate 
from  our  consul.  When  a  native  British  merchant 
could  not  obtain  justice,  it  may  easily  be  imagined  what 
measure  of  law  and  right  was  dealt  out  there  to  our 
protected  subjects  Ike  I<»iian  Greeks  and  the  poor 
Maltese. 

There  was  one  particular  case  of  Turkish  injustice 
and  dif^matie  blundering  which,  although  it  did  nofc 
oome  before  the  Tidjaret  Court,  I  would  fain  ^^  read  in 
short,^  for  it  vitally  concerned  a  dear  old  friend,  and  is 
strongly  and  most  characteristically  marked. 

An  Englishman  travelling  in  Asia  Minor,  discovered, 
at  a  place  not  far  from  Ephesus  and  the  port  of  Scala 
Nuova,  a  good  mine  of  emery.  He  was  a  poor  man, 
and  without  conneidons  in  the  country,  but  he  knew  the 
value  of  the  article ;  and,  foil  of  the  discovery,  he  went 
back  to  Smyrna,  and  endeavoured  to  interest  in  it 
several  merchants,  who  might  obtain  a  firman  from  the 
Porte,  and  provide  the  funds  necessary  for  working  the 

mine.    He  applied  to  Mr.  A        ,  to  Messrs.  L.  F ^ 

and  to  others,  who  all  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  project 
He  then  addressed  himself  to  Mr.  Joseph  Langdon  of 
Boston,  who  went  with  him  to  the  mine,  warmly  took 
up  the  project,  and,  in  copartnership  with  an  English 
merchant  of  Smyrna,  and  an  Ionian  Greek,  a  protected 


Chap.  XXSH.    MR.  LANQDON  AND  HIS  BMBBT-MINE.      647 

English  subject,  supplied  the  discoverer  with  money, 
and  opened  a  negotiation  with  the  Porte,  After  a  little 
of  the  usual  delay,  a  firman  was  obtained,  authorizing 
Mr.  Langdon  to  work  the  mine  for  a  term  of  year% 
upon  payment  of  a  moderate  annual  rent  to  govern- 
ment The  discoverer  proceeded  to  work  with  alacrity ; 
the  emery  was  found  to  be  of  first-rate  quality ;  quan- 
tities were  shipped  for  England  and  America,  and  they 
fetched  good  prices  in  both  markets.  There  was  a  fair 
prospect  that  Joseph  Langdon,  who  had  not  been  so 
fortunate  as  he  had  deserved  to  be,  would  by  his  share 
realize  a  decent  fortune  during  the  years  to  which  the 
contract  extended.  J  know  no  man  more  deserving  of 
the  gifts  of  fortune.  In  1827-8,  when  he  was  in  afflu- 
ence, he  was  the  most  hospitable,  generous,  and  cha-* 
ritable  of  men ;  and  a  few  years  before  my  acquaintance 
with  him,  when  the  Turks,  maddened  by  their  reverses 
in  Greece,  were  murdering  the  Greeks  all  over  Turkey, 
and  massacre  was  the  order  of  the  day  at  Smyrna,  he 
did  more  ibr  the  cause  of  humanity  than  any  score  of 
the  opulent  Franks  and  Christians  of  that  place.* 

The  discoverer  of  the  mine  fell  sick,  and  died  up  the 
country,  leaving  a  poor  widow  and  children  who  were 
in  England ;  but  a  provision  for  the  widow  was  secured, 
for  Mr.  Langdon,  and  through  him  his  associates,  had 
entered  into  a  bond  by  which  the  familv  of  the  dts* 
coverer  was  to  be  entitled  to  a  considerable  share  of  the 
annual  profits  on  the  emery.    If  the  Porte  had  respected 

*  In  a  case  like  thlB  an  author  may  be  excused  even  for  qnoting  bis 
own  boolc.  But  I  will  not  quote ;  I  will  meroly  refer  the  reader  to  '  Coq« 
stantinople  in  1828/  for  a  brief  and  inadequate  notice  of  that  which  was 
done  at  the  time  of  the  Smyrna  massacres  by  Joseph  Langdon  of  Boston, 
U.  8. 


648  TURKEY  AND  ITB  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXXH. 

tiie  contract,  the  poor  widow  and  children  would  have 
been  placed  far  above  want;  but  the  success  of  the  enter- 
prise excited  the  cupidity  of  Mr.  A y  who  posted  off 

to  Constantinople,  told  some  of  the  pashas  that  they 
had  given  the  emery-mine  for  too  little,  and  offered 
twice  or  thrice  as  much  as  Mr.  Langdon  and  his  asso- 
ciates had  agreed  to  pay.     Mr.  A was  a  native 

Englishman,  having  access  to  our  Embassy,  and  friendly 
relations  with  some  of  die  Perote  drogomans  and 
hangers-on  of  the  Legation.  Sir  Stratford  Canning  had 
left  for  England.    Lord  ^Cowley  was  led  to  believe  that 

he  ought  to  support  Mr.  A as  a  British  subject. 

British  subject  I  Why,  what  were  the  wife  and  children 
of  the  unfortunate  discoverer  but  British  subjects,  and 
subjects  having  a  double  claim  on  diplomatic  support  ? 
One  of  Mr.  Langdon*s  associates  was  a  born  and  true 
Englishman,  and  the  odier  was  an  Ionian  Greek,  and 
pro  tanto  a  British  subject  Thus,  though  Langdon  was 
an  American,  Briti^  interests  predominated ;  and  had 
he  been  twenty  times  an  American,  or  had  he  been  a 
Kaffir,  it  was  assuredly  not  a  case  in  which  to  interfere ; 
but  Lord  Cowley  did  interfere.  I  am  convinced  that 
his  Lordship  was  shamefully  mismformed  and  misled 
by  some  about  him.  Mr.  Langdon  was  thoroughly  per- 
suaded that  it  had  been  so,  and  that  one  of  his  Lord 
ship's  entourage  had  been  bribed  by  the  competing  Mr. 
A .  Langdon's  Ionian  Greek  associate  most  so- 
lemnly swore  to  me  that  he  knew  that  a  certain  Perote 
had  taken  a  bribe,  and  that  he  could  prove  it,  if  the  oppor- 
tunity  were  afforded  to  him.  When  the  manoeuvre  was 
first  made  known  at  Smyrna,  Langdon  pleaded  the 
binding  nature  of  a  contract  which  had  been  entered 


Chap.  XXXTF.    BROKEN  CONTRACTS  OP  THE  PORTE.         649 

into  upon  what  was  then  merely  experimental,  the  sanc- 
tity of  an  imperial  firman,  and  the  Sultan's  own  signa- 
ture. When  the  term  of  the  lease  should  expire,  the 
Forte  might  conclude  a  more  profitable  bai^ain;  he 
himself  would  increase  the  rent,  or  enter  into  a  fair  com- 
petition with  other  bidders ;  but,  until  the  expiration  of 
the  term,  surely  the  contract  ought  to  be  scrupulously 
observed,  and  he  ought  to  be  allowed  to  excavate  and 
export  the  emery.  The  Porte,  encouraged  by  flie  in- 
judicious interference  of  our  Legation,  took  a  very  dif- 
ferent view  of  the  subject ;  and,  heaping  dirt  upon  the 

imperial  firman,  they  determined  that  Mr.  A ^  as  a 

higher  bidder,  should  have  the  mine  forthwith.  But  now 

other  cupidities  were  awakened.     Messrs.  L.  F -, 

Levantines  by  birth  and  Swiss  by  descent,  but  enjoying 
British  protection,  who  also  had  scorned  the  project 
when  offered  to  them,  and  turned  their  backs  on  the 
poor  discoverer,  now  struck  in,  bidding  three  times 

more  than  Mr.  A^ had  done.    Presto !    The  Porte 

broke  another  agreement,  and  settled  that  Messrs.  L. 

F should  have  the  emery-mine.     But  soon  these 

greedy  Turks,  who  would  never  have  known  that  there 
was  such  a  mine  but  for  the  unfortunate  English  tra- 
veller, began  to  pause  and  ponder,  and  take  counsel 
among  themselves  and  with  their  Armenian  seraffi. 
**  If,"  said  they,  '^  these  Frank  merchants  now  offer  so 
much  money  for  those  stones,  it  is  quite  certain  that 
they  must  be  worth  a  vast  deal  more.  Would  it  not 
be  better  to .  keep  them  all  to  ourselves  ?  ^  Our  friend 
Mustapha  Nouree,  tibe  pasha  of  Brusa,  excited  beyond 
measure  by  the  reports  made  to  him,  agreed  to  take  an 
interest  in  the  mine,  and  stirred  up  his  powerfol  friends 


650  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY,       Chaf.  XXXH. 

in  the  capital.     Messrs*  L.  F were  renvoySs ;  and 

it  was  settled  that  the  pashas  should  work  the  emery 
for  account  of  government,  which,  in  plainer  words, 
meant  for  their  own  account  Mr.  Langdon  requested 
to  be  permitted  at  least  to  ship  some .  of  the  emery 
which  was  already  dug,  and  lying  near  the  sea-port 
They  refiised  even  this  permission.     They  would  haye 

nothing  more  to  do  with  him  or  Mr.  A j  or  the 

Messrs.  L.  F :  they  would  be  their  own  emery- 
miners,  and  dealers  in  emery.  From  that  day  the 
^DQery*mine  had  been  left  idle,  and  utterly  Useless  I 
Greedy  to  get  it,  the  pashas — More  Turco — seemed  to 
have  forgotten  the  mine  as  soon  as  they  had  obtained 
it  It  was  said  that  they  were  going  to  work  it  some 
day ;  but  during  tiie  eleven  months  Ihat  we  were  in  the 

Sad  letters  came  from  England  from  the  widow, 
whose  only  means  of  support  were  thus  cut  off.  Mr. 
Langdon  went  to  Constantinople  and  spent  money  and 
much  time  in  vain  endeavours  to  get  a  compensation  for 
himself  and  the  parties  originally  interested  with  him. 
He  was  a  martyr  to  the  backshish  persecution.  He 
saw  the  heads  of  government,  and  with  the  assistance  of 
Mr.  Browne,  the  drogoman  of  the  American  Legation, 
he  laid  the  whole  case  before  several  of  the  grandeea* 
As,  most  improperly,  the  question  was  left  as  one  purely 
of  American  interests,  and  as  the  United  States  had 
not  yet  meddled  in  Turkish  affairs,  or  struck  terror  to 
the  Porte,  which  is  hardly  to  be  moved  except  through 
its  fears,  Mr.  L.  could  obtain  no  reparation  whatever* 
He  hoped  much  from  the  return  of  Sir  Stratford 
Canning,  if  the  whole  case  were  clearly  laid  before  him. 


Chap.  XXXH.  PILGRIMAGE  BY  PROXY.  651 

I  can  answer  that  the  case  tocLS  so  laid  in  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Sir  Stratford  from  Smyrna,  on  the  8th  of 
July,  1848.  I  have  yet,  however,  to  learn  that  justice 
has  been  done  in  this  striking  and  affecting  case,  and  I 
very  much  fear  that  political  turmoils,  and  this  quarrel 
of  Turkey  with  Russia,  on  account  of  the  renegade  Bern 
and  his  rufBans,  may  have  prevented  our  ambassador 
from  bestowing  on  the  case  the  attention  it  merits  and 
loudly  calls  for. 

Nearly  every  day  afforded  us  some  ocular  proo^  of 
more  or  less  importance,  that  the  devotional  feelings  of 
the  Turks  were  rapidly  on  the  decline,  and  yet  that 
their  hatred  and  injustice  towards  the  Christian  Bayah 
subjects  were  not  at  all  decreasing.  In  walking  through 
the  streets  of  Constantinople  (generally  on  our  way  to 
the  house  of  our  good  friend  Mr.  Sang,  at  Psammattia), 
we  two  or  three  times  came  upon  some  Turks,  who 
were  beating  small  drums  and  playing  off  a  strange 
masquerade.  Some  of  them  were  tall  young  men, 
wearing  white  turbans  of  unusual  dimensions,  bearing 
old  Turkish  shields  on  their  left  arms,  and  carrying  and 
brandishing  scimitars  in  their  right  hands.  They  per- 
formed a  sort  of  wild  war-dance  in  the  street,  striking 
their  shields  with  their  swords,  and  making  altogether  a 
terrible  clatter.  People  from  some  of  the  Mussulman 
houses  threw  them  out  small  coins.  We  took  them  for 
troops  of  morrice  dancers,  but  were  informed  that  they 
were  collecti  ng  money  for  the  annual  pilgrimage  to  Mecca, 
and  that  some  of  the  mock  warriors  intended  to  go  on  that 
holy  expedition.  The  Turks  have  introduced  the  fashion 
of  performing  the  pilgrimage  vicariously.  In  former 
times  a  rich  and  devout  Turk  would,  out  of  his  own  single 


652  TURKEY  AITD  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXXH. 

purse,  defray  the  expenses  of  the  long  journey,  and  give 
a  considerable  sum  to  the  man  that  represented  him  at 
the  tomb  of  the  Prophet,  taking  credit  with  heaven  for 
the  outlay,  and  assuming  that  what  was  done  by  his 
delegate  was  done  by  himself  and  for  himself.  As  they 
grew  poorer,  two  or  three  Turks  would  club  together 
to  pay  a  poor  fellow,  and  make  a  hadji  of  him,  dividing 
the  spiritual  advantages  among  themselves.  As  they 
grew  irreligious,  the  beys  and  effendis  gave  up  these 
practices ;  and  it  is  now-a-days  most  rarely  that  Turkish 
gentlemen  of  Stamboul  have  any  concern  whatever  in 
these  pilgrimages.  Such  hadjis  as  go  from  the  capital 
are  a  set  of  hungry  destitute  men,  who  dance  and  beg 
through  the  streets  for  tibe  wherewithal ;  and  it  not  un- 
frequently  happens  that  some  of  them,  after  thus  levying 
contributions,  desert  the  caravan  on  the  first  day's 
march,  or  go  no  farther  into  Asia  than  to  the  suburb 
of  Scutari*  It  was  only  from  tiie  poorest  houses  that 
the  donations  of  halfpence  and  farthings  were  made ; 
the  Turks  of  superior  condition  seemed  to  r^ard  the 
dancing  hadjis  as  mere  mummers.  The  substance  is 
gone,  but  the  shadow  remains.  On  the  14th  of  June  a 
great  firing  of  guns  at  Constantinople  announced  the 
departure  for  Scutari  of  the  Surre  Emini,  or  chief  of 
the  pilgrims  and  commander  of  the  caravan,  who  is 
annually  appointed  with  great  form  and  ceremony  by 
the  Sultan,  receiving  from  that  representative  of  the 
Caliphs  a  certain  green  flag  and  a  round  sum  of  money. 
The  Surre  Emini  remained  a  few  days  at  Scutari  liiat 
the  pilgrims  might  collect  around  him,  and  he  dien 
took  Ids  departure  for  the  interior  of  Asia,  followed  by 
a  motley  group  of  some  few  scores  of  ragged  desperate 


Chap.  XXXII.    DEPARTURE  OF  THE  8URRE  EMINI.  653 

vagabonds.  We  did  not  see  the  sight,  being  engaged 
elsewhere,  but  we  were  assured  by  some  who  went 
over  to  Scutari  that  it  was  a  deplorable  expedition, 
far  worse  this  year  than  the  year  before,  and  that 
for  the  last  fifteen  years  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  had 
been  growing  more  and  more  a  sham,  and  thinner 
and  meaner.  The  very  few  Turks  of  condition  that 
now  go  to  Mecca  shorten  the  fatigues  of  the  journey 
by  repairing  to  the  coast  of  Syria  or  Egypt  in  steam- 
boats. 

By  this  time  the  weather  was  excessively  hot  in  Pera 
and  Galata,  so  that  it  was  fortunate  that  our  researches 
carried  us  frequently  to  San  Stefano,  the  Princes'  Islands, 
or  up  the  Bosphorus  to  Bebek,  Therapia,  or  Buyuk-dere, 
where  the  heat  was  tempered  by  the  breezes  from  the 
Black  Sea.  It  was  also  well  to  be  as  much  as  possible 
out  of  the  way  of  cholera.  In  the  last-named  diplo- 
matic village  we  were  usually  the  guests  of  Mr.  Carr, 
who  had  transferred  his  quarters  thither  from  San 
Stefano ;  but  we  now  and  then  visited  the  ^^  Hdtel  de 
TEmpire  Ottoman, **  which  was  incomparably  the  best 
house  and  the  best  managed  that  we  found  anywhere  in 
Turkey.  In  cleanliness  and  comfort,  and  in  moderate 
charges^  it  far  surpassed  any  hotel  in  Pera.  It  had  been 
fitted  up,  and  was  conducted  by  a  smart  Piedmontese, 
who  had  been  for  several  years  maitre  dli6tel  to  the 
Russian  embassy,  and  who  had  a  very  lively  ^^  neat- 
handed  '*  wife,  recently  arrived  from  Turin,  her  native 
place — at  which  she  very  heartily  wished  herself  back. 
I  mention  this  hotel  only  for  the  sake  of  an  illustrajtlve 
story,  related  to  me  and  my  good  friend  Mr.  Porter, 
the  American  consul,  by  husband  and  wife.    They  had 


*  TDRKET  AND  ITS  DE8TINT.        Chap.  XXSM. 

!«itly  beea  inToIved  in  serioos  troubles  tbroi^h  the 
lecurity  of  the  tenure  by  which  Franks  hold  property 
this  country.  Aa  a  clear  illustration  of  that  in- 
nrity,  and  as  a  refutation  of  such  as  pretend  that  a 
iristian  non-Rayah  subject  may  safely  purchase  houses 
1  lands,  and  hold  them  in  the  name  of  some  Rayah, 
:  story  is  certainly  worth  teUingr*  Added  to  that  of 
tiri  Macri  of  Selyrria,  it  will  ^ve  a  complete  notion 
those  matters. 

Not  being  allowed  by  Turkish  law  to  purchase  house 
land  in  his  own  name,  the  Piedmontese  had  made 
!  purchase  through  a  Greek  Rayah,  in  whose  name 
the  deeds  and  papers  ran.  This  was  following  the 
lal  course.  He  took  the  Greek  to  be  a  man  he  could 
st,  but  after  a  time  he  was  informed  of  certain 
jsages  of  the  Greek's  history  which  coDTinced  him  that 
;  man  was  a  n^e,  and  that  the  hotel  and  garden  at 
lyuk-derd  would  be  in  jeopardy  so  long  as  they  stood 
his  name.  There  was  nothing  for  the  Piedmontese 
do  but  to  get  a  fictitious  transfer  made  out  in  the 
me  of  some  other  Rayah.  This  time  he  chose  an 
menian,  who  may  very  likely  have  turned  out  as 
:at  8  rogue  as  the  Greek.  The  transfer  of  the  title 
}ds  had  cost  him  a  very  large  sum — I  believe  nearly 
f  as  much  as  he  had  originally  paid  for  the  house  and 
■den ;  and  he  told  us  that  it  would  have  cost  him 
ich  more  if  he  hadnot  been  well  backed  by  gentlemen 
ongii^  to  the  Russian  and  Sardinian  legations.  He 
nself  felt  even  now  that  his  property  was  very  in- 
ure. "But,"  said  he,  "when  will  any  class  of 
ristians  be  really  secure  in  their  property,  or  left  to 
ioy  the  fruits  of  their  honest  industry,  if  the  Rusetanai, 


Chap.  XXXn.    INSECUBITY  OP  FRANK  PROFBETY.  B55 

or  some  other  Christian  powers,  do  not  take  possession 
and  expel  the  rotting,  dying,  Turkish  government  ?  *  * 
Having  finished  my  researches,  and  seen  quite  as 
much  of  the  state  of  Turkey  as  it  was  necessary  for  my 
purpose  to  see,  I  was  on  the  point  of  engaging  a  passage 
to  Malta,  when  I  learned  to  a  certainty  that  Sir  Strat- 
ford Canning  was  on  his  way^  and  had  really  reached 
Athens.  I  had  now  for  some  months  given  up  the 
faintest  notion  that  that  gentleman  could  promote  any 
of  my  views^  or  that  an  honest  man  could  be  of  any  use 
in  such  a  country  under  such  a  government ;  but  the 
honour  of  my  acquaintance  with  Sir  Stratford  dated 
twenty  years  back,  in  some  questions  I  had  been  (how- 
ever weakly  or  ineffectually)  a  champion  of  his  policy, 

*  Among  the  Princes'  Islands  we  visited  Prot^  now  the  seat  of  a  small 
Protestant  Armenian  colony  conyerted  by  the  American  missionaiies.  For 
two  days  we  were  the  guests  of  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Everett,  one  of  those  mlBsion* 
aries,  from  aU  of  whom  we  received  many  acts  of  kindness.  I  again 
express  my  regret  that  I  cannot,  in  this  work,  give  an  account  of  their 
labours  in  the  East.  Some  of  them  had  travelled  over  every  part  of  the 
Turkish  llmpire,  €md  were  most  thoroughly  convinced  that  that  empire 
was  mined  past  hope  of  recovery.  At  Prot^  we  met  the  Rev.  E.  Bliss, 
who  had  came  down  a  few  days  before  from  Trebizond,  his  head-qnarten 
for  some  years.  This  religious  and  truthful  man  described  that  Pashalik 
(as  many  others  had  done  to  me)  as  being  in  a  woful  condition.  In  the 
sea-port  of  Trebizond  steam-navigation  and  a  slightly  increased  transit- 
trade  had  brought  about  some  litUe  improvement  and  prosperity ;  but  the 
busy  and  prosperous  were  only  the  Greeks  and  the  other  Bayabs,  and 
beyond  the  town-walls  all  was  oppression,  poverty,  and  squalid  misery. 
The  people  were  living  in  wretched  log-huts.  There  were  no  roads ;  the 
old  paths  were  worse  now  than  they  were  when  he  first  went  to  the 
Pashalik.  Immense  tracts  of  the  most  beautiful  country  and  most  glo- 
riouB  forefits  were  left  untouched  by  plough,  or  spade,  or  woodman's  axe. 
It  was  a  country  of  the  ''  Backwoods"  before  the  first  squatters  had 
entered  it.  There  they  had  only  just  introduced  the  Tanzimaut,  with  all 
its  new  administrative  regulations.  As  yet  there  had  not  been  time  to 
judge  of  its  effects,  but  the  Missi(»uyie8  did  not  believe  that  it  ooukL  work 
any  better  than  it  had  done  in  other  parts  of  the  empire,  wherein  it  had 
been  established  for  years. 


'  y — 


65«  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.         Chap.  XXXU. 

and  haying  so  long  expected  to  see  him,  I  thought  I 
might  well  wait  a  week  or  two  locker.  I  hoped  nothing 
from  him,  I  had  nothing  to  ask  of  him ;  but  I  believed 
that  I  had  some  things  Ihat  I  might  communicate 
which  would  be  of  service  both  to  him  and  to  my 
country ;  and  setting  aside  all  affectations  of  modesty  and 
humility,  and  caring  nothing  for  party  taunts  and  sneers, 
I  do  now  say,  that  no  candid  reader  will  have  accom- 
panied me  thus  far  without  feeling  that  I  could  make 
such  communications  to  Sir  Stratford. 

Though  so  frequently  absent,  we  had  the  fortune  to 
be  on  the  spot  at  the  time  of  the  grand  conflagration  of 
Pera.     It  was  Saturday  the  17th  of  June.     We  were 

dining  down  in  Galata  with  our  friend  Mr.  W.  H ^ 

when  a  servant  entered  the  room,  and  said  in  an  un- 
concerned manner  that  there  was  a  fire  somewhere  up 
above.  As  this  was  so  common  an  occurrence,  we  took 
no  notice  of  the  announcement,  but  quietly  finished 
our  dinner,  and  took  the  tchibouques  which  invariably 
follow.  In  another  half-hour,  however,  the  servant  re- 
entered, and  said  that  Ihis  was  a  very  bad  fire !  a  most 
terrible  fire  indeed,  that  was  threatening  to  burn  out  all 
the  Christians  on  this  side  the  water  I  We  took  our 
hats  and  sticks,  and  clambered  up  that  horrible  hill. 
The  sun  was  a  good  hour  from  his  setting  \  but  as  we 
ascended,  his  face  was  obscured  by  dense  smoke.  As 
we  drew  nearer  this  smoke  was  almost  suffocating,  and 
the  air  was  charged  with  pungent  matter,  offensive  alike 
to  eyes  and  nostrils.  The  fure  was  as  yet  confined  to  a 
hollow  behind  the  British  palace,  in  the  direction  of  the 
Greek  quarter  of  St  Dimitri,  and  people  were  enters 
taining  the  hope  that  by  knocking  down  some  houses 


1 


Chap.  XXXH.  GREAT  FIRE  AT  PERA.  657 

the  Turkish  firemen  would  stop  it  there.  Vain  hope ! 
The  Turks  did  nothing,  or  nothing  in  time  and  in  the 
right  way ;  the  evening  breeze  freshened,  blowing  from 
the  Propontis,  and  carrying  the  flames  towards  the  roost 
densely  inhabited  parts  of  Pera.  Then  there  was  wild 
alarm,  and  the  scene  became  truly  terrific:  the  sun 
went  down,  and  a  sea  of  fire  and  flame  showed  itself 
through  the  thick  smoke ;  the  sick  and  the  bed-ridden 
were  hmrriedly  brought  out  of  their  houses  on  men's 
shoulders,  to  be  deposited,  for  the  most  part,  among  the 
tombstones  of  the  cemeteries ;  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren were  screaming  and  running  wildly  about,  at- 
tempting to  save  their  household  goods  from  the  rapidly 
advancing  conflagration. 

On  reaching  the  edge  of  the  fire  we  found  three  or 
four  miserable  little  machines,  with  little  more  force 
than  a  good  garden-engine,  playing  upon  it ;  and  this 
very  useless  operation  was  soon  suspended  for  want  of 
water.  We  retreated  from  house  to  house  and  from 
street  to  street  as  the  flames  advanced.  We  remained 
in  the  house  of  Mr.  Browne  of  the  United  States  Lega- 
tion until  the  fire  caught  next  door ;  the  valuables  and 
some  of  the  household  frimiture  were  pretty  well  re- 
moved before  we  withdrew :  we  never  thought  the  house 
could  escape ;  but  to  the  astonishment  of  most  people, 
it  was  not  burned  this  time.  At  about  9  o'clock  the 
conflagration  was  truly  tremendous :  except  the  eruption 
of  Mount  Vesuvius  in  October,  1822, 1  never  saw  (in 
a  scene  where  fire  was  the  main  element)  so  sublime 
and  terrific  a  sight  But  though  strongly  tempted, 
I  must  resist  scenic  description.  The  great  pashas 
now  began  to  arrive  with  a  battalion  of  the  imperial 

VOL.  u.  2  u 


658  TUBKBY  AND  ITS  DESTINT.       Chap.  XXXIL 

guard ;  but  for  all  the  good  they  did,  they  mi^t  as 
well  have  remained  in  their  konacks  and  barracks. 
The  soldiers  stumbled  about  the  rough  streets  with 
their  muskets  carried  horizontally  on  their  shouldersy 
and  with  their  fixed  bayonets  level  with  people's  faces 
and  eyes,  so  that  in  the  crowd  there  was  a  great  chance 
of  getting  wounded  by  them.  Instead  of  clearing  the 
narrow  streets  for  the  passage  of  those  who  were  trying 
to  save  their  goods,  or  were  brining  up  water,  they 
blocked  up  the  way,  thus  increasing  the  confusion  and 
causing  a  loss  of  time.  Some  of  the  pashas  remained 
on  horseback,  surrounded  by  a  host  of  idling  attendants, 
and  gazed  on  the  flames,  and  did  or  ordered  just  no- 
thing ;  others  alighted  and  seated  themselves  on  stools^ 
at  a  respectful  distance,  as  if  to  enjoy  the  spectacle  at 
their  ease ;  and  others  standing  at  the  comers  of  streets 
were  issuing  the  most  ridiculous  or  the  most  contra- 
dictory orders.  It  really  appeared  as  tiiou^  they 
wished  the  conflagration  to  spread.  Some  there  were — 
as  well  Franks  as  Greeks — who  vowed  that  this  was 
their  intention.  "  They  are  now  afraid  of  these'  revo- 
lutions in  Christendom,"  said  tibey,  ^^  and  they  want  to 
strike  terror  and  reduce  all  the  Christians  here  to  a 
helpless  condition  I  **  At  least  half  a  dozen  times  I 
would  have  undertaken  with  a  score  of  London  firemen, 
or  of  English  sailors — the  best  of  all  firemen — to  check 
the  progress  of  the  flames,  by  pulling  down  a  few  rotten 
wooden  houses,  and  making  a  void  space.  An  Ionian 
Greek  proposed  this  process  to  the  Sultan's  brother-in- 
law,  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  who  was  among  the  idlest 
of  those  dignitaries.  As  the  flames  approached  this 
Greek's  house,  as  no  help  was  aflbrded  either  by  knock- 
ing down  an  adjoining  hovel,  or  by  setting  a  fire-engine 


Chat.  XXXn.  GREAT  FIRE  AT  PERA.  659 

at  work,  as  he  saw  that  no  aid  would  be  lent  him, 
because  he  had  not  money  to  pay  for  it^  he  raised  his 
voice,  and  asked  Mehemet  Ali  whether  he  was  to  stand 
&ere  and  see  his  house  burned  to  the  ground.  Instead 
of  commiserating  the  poor  fellow,  the  Pasha  called  him 
by  a  most  opprobrious  name,  upon  which  the  Ionian 
drew  a  pistol  and  discharged  it  at  him.  Had  the 
Qreek's  pistol  been  better,  or  his  nerves  steadier,  there 
would  in  all  probability  have  been  one  villain  the  less 
that  night  in  Turkey ;  but  the  Pasha  escaped  uninjured, 
and  the  Greek,  being  first  nearly  killed  by  the  Pasha's 
retainers,  was  whirled  down  to  the  horrible  Bagnio. 

Of  all  the  pashas  assembled — and  by  1 1  o'clock  they 
seemed  all  to  be  there — the  only  one  that  we  saw 
really  bestirring  himself  and  acting  with  sense  as 
well  as  energy,  and  as  if  he  wished  the  fire  to  cease 
and  not  to  continue,  was  Reschid  s  rival,  the  much- 
decried  Biza  Pasha.  He  was  on  foot,  with  a  strong 
stick  in  his  hand,  running  about  with  the  firemen,  and 
showing  them  where  to  apply  and  how  to  use  their  long 
fire-hooks*  If  he  had  taken  the  field  a  little  earlier  he 
might  have  stopped  the  incendium,  by  pulling  down  a 
few  paltry  houses.  It  was  now  too  late:  the  breeze 
had  increased,  the  Fire  King  had  clomb  the  hill,  had 
reached  the  plateau  of  Pera,  and  was  striding  across 
the  main  street  which  leads  firom  the  Galata  Serai  to 
the  great  cemetery.  Though  very  weak  and  bad,  there 
were  by  this  time  a  good  many  fire  engines  (all  port- 
able) collected  ;*  but  the  water  had  to  be  brought  up 
to  the  hill-top  in  skins  on  the  backs  of  horses,  asses, 

*  The  steep  hills,  deep  gullies,  narrow  streets  and  crooked  lanes  would 
not  allov  of  the  passage  of  anything  like  a  London  fire-engine.  These 
Constantinople  engines  are  carried  on  men's  shoulders. 

2u2 


r 


660  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXXII. 

mules,  and  men,  and  of  this  slow  and  scanty  supply 
more  than  half  appeared  to  be  lost  before  reaching  the 
scene  of  action. 

About  midnight,  when  I  really  expected  nothing 
less  than  the  entire  destruction  of  Pera^  we  went  to  our 
quarters  to  pack  up  our  portmanteaux  and  books.  At 
the  end  of  our  lane  we  met  a  great  number  of  Turkish 
women,  streaming  up  from  Kassim  Pasha,  the  other 
regions  near  the  arsenal,  and  all  the  lower  part  of  the 
Petit  Champ  des  Morts.  They  were  gesticulating^ 
cursing  the  Christians  in  no  very  subdued  voice,  and 
rejoicing  at  the  vast  destruction  of  property,  although 
many  of  the  houses  that  were  burning  belonged  to  their 
own  people.  ^^The  ghiaours,  the  kupeks,  the  peza- 
venks,"  said  they,  "  see  how  they  are  running !  They 
have  built  over  our  heads  I  They  have  thrust  out  the 
Mussulman  dwellers !  They  have  made  a  ghiaour  city 
here !  May  it  all  burn  !  burn  I "  aud  observing  tliat. 
we  and  some  Frank  ladies,  from  their  windows,  were 
looking  at  them  and  catching  their  words,  they  elapped 
their  skinny  stained  hands,  and  hissed  at  us  like  a  flock 
of  irate  geese.  Our  sitting-room,  our  bed-room,  and 
every  part  of  Tonco'a  house  from  kitchen  to  garret^  were 
crowded  with  Frank  ladies  and  children,  who  had  been 
burned  out  of  house  and  home,  and  some  of  whom  had 
escaped  with  little  more  than  the  clothes  on  their  backs. 
There  was  no  staying  there ;  so,  after  packing  up  our 
loose  clothes  and  books,  we  returned  to  the  grand 
spectacle.  We*  passed  the  houses  of  two  of  the 
American  missionaries,  where  we  had  been  visiting  a 
few  evenings  before,  and  found  them  all  of  a  blaze. 
We  stayed  in  a  large  double  house  occupied  by  two 


Chap.  XXXH.  GREAT  FIRE  AT  PER  A.  661 

Other  of  those  missionaries  (Mr.  Everett  and  the  excel- 
lent old  Mr.  Goodell)  watching  the  progress  of  the 
conflagration,  until  the  glass  of  the  windows  was  so  hot 
that  we  could  not  bear  a  finger  upon  them,  and  until 
the  roof  was  set  on  fire  by  embers  wafted  through 
the  air  by  the  wind.  This  house  too  had  an  almost 
miraculous  escape,  for,  although  the  roof  was  partly 
in  flames  when  we  left  it,  it  was  not  destroyed.  Being 
dried  by  the  hot  summer  sun  these  wooden  houses 
caught  like  tinder.  In  several  places,  at  considerable 
distances  firom  the  advancing  firont  line  of  the  flames, 
we  saw  houses  take  fire  at  the  roof  and  be  all  in  a  blaze 
in  a  few  minutes ;  some  ignited  fragments  had  fallen 
upon  them.  In  beating  a  retreat  firom  this  missionary- 
house  we  saw  in  a  very  narrow  lane  that  other  brother- 
in-law  of  the  Sultan,  Achmet  Fethi  Pashk,  who  was  so 
very  fat,  and  riding  so  fat  a  horse,  that  it  seemed 
problematical  whether  he  would  ever  get  through  the 
narrowest  part  At  other  points  we  found  people  im- 
ploring the  firem^  and  pumpmen  to  save  their  houses, 
and  bargaining  with  them  for  the  money  they  were  to 
pay.  The  rogues  on  duty  would  do  nothing  without 
cash  in  hand ;  those  who  paid  most  got  their  services  ; 
the  poor  man  who  could  give  only  100  piastres  was  left 
for  die  richer  man  who  could  pay  1000.  Not  a  service 
was  rendered  without  previous  bargain  and  previous 
payment.  The  Turks  were  coining  money  at  this 
fire  I  In  several  cases,  where  liberal  sums  were 
paid,  we  saw  engines  concentrated,  and  a  respectable 
house  saved,  though  apparently  in  the  midst  of  the 
flames.  The  poor  had  no  chance  :  nobody  would  listen 
to  them,  and  if  they  became  importunate  they  got 
abuse  or  a  beating*      The  scenes  I  witnessed  with  my 


/ 


662  TURKEY  AKD  ITS  DE8TINY.        Chap.  XXXIL 

own  eyes  this  night  capped  my  observations  on  Turkey ; 
but  I  saw  nothing  that  was  new  to  the  country,  nothing 
but  was  strictly  according  to  established  usage.  Such 
a  grand  fire  was  not  very  frequent ;  but  at  every  fire 
the  functionaries  salaried  by  the  State  would  do  nothing 
for  the  poor  man  that  could  -  not  pay  them.  As  the 
Ionian  Greek  had,  in  all  probability^  previous  ex.* 
perience  of  these  facts,  it  was  almost  pardonable — ^when 
additionally  provoked  by  the  horriUe  epithet — that  he 
should  have  shot  at  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha. 

Moving  firom  place  to  place,  and  witnessing  more 
compounds  of  rascality,  stupidity,  and  woe,  we  remained 
abroad  until  3  o'clock  in  the  morning ;  and  then,  worn 
out  with  fatigue,  we  went  home,  and  stretched  ourselves 
on  one  of  Tonco's  hard  divans. 

About  4  in  the  morning,  as  the  Fire  King,  after 
descending  the  reverse  of  the  hill  towards  the  Bos- 
phorus,  and  consuming  every&ing  on  his  path,  was 
approaching  Tophana,  and  die  artillery  barracks,  and  a 
great  depot  of  gunpowder,  his  steps  were  arrested. 
Some  said  that  this  halt  was  caused  by  a  broad  gap, 
and  by  the  cessation  of  the  wind  which  oould  not  well 
reach  that  hollow ;  others  said,  that  seeing  how  nearly 
he  was  approaching  Tophana,  the  Pashas  gathering 
together  opined  that  he  had  gone  far  enou^^  and  ought 
to  be  stopped,  and  did  then  resort  to  measures  which 
effectually  stopped  the  devourer.  Counting  of  all  sises 
and  qualities  nearly  2000  houses  had  been  eo  completely 
consumed  that '  absolutely  nothing  was  left  to  show 
where  they  had  been  except  heaps  of  pungent  ashes^ 
and  here  and  there  a  calcined  stone-wall  or  stack  of 
chimneys  built  of  stone  and  brick. 

That  Sunday  morning,  after  walking  over  the  deso- 


Chap.  XXXII.  LIEUTENANT  G .  663 

lated  space,  extending  nearly  from  the  Golden  Horn  to 
the  Bosphoms — a  space  which  had  been  covered  and 
crammed  yesterday  morning  with  human  habitations, 
of  wood  and  poor  enough,  and  for  the  most  part  filthy, 
but  still  the  abodes  of  men — ^we  had  in  our  spared 
quarters  a  fearfiil  summing  up  of  accounts  and  losses. 
Old  Angelo,  a  knowing  Venetian,  and  a  great  fi*iend  or 
gossip  of  our  host,  came  in.  "Well,*'  said  Tonco, 
•^are  you  hrucciato  f  **  "No,**  said  Angelo,  "but  it  cost 
me  4000  piastres  to  save  my  house,  and  I  am  pretty 
sure  that  one  of  die  canaglia  of  pashas  got  half  of  my 
money  I  ** 

At  Ae  very  next  appearance  of  the  *  Journal  de 
Constantinople,'  those  truth-telling  people  who  wrote  in 
it  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  nothing  could  exceed 
tiie  seal,  skill,  courage,  and  activity  of  all  the  pashas 
who  had  assisted  at  the  lamentable  conflagration ! 

As  houses  are  never  insured  in  Turkey,  and  as  under 
the  circumstances  nobody  would  insure  them  except  at 
an  enormous  rate,  the  losses  of  individuals  in  a  com- 
bustion like  this  must  have  amounted  to  a  portentous 
sum  and  have  occasioned  a  vast  amoimt  of  private  dis- 
tress and  misery.  It  is  counted  that  the  average  lon- 
gevity of  a  house  up  in  Pera  is  only  between  six  and  seven 
years,  and  hence  the  enormous  rent  that  one  is  obliged 
to  pay  for  the  merest  baraque.  Some  of  our  friends 
congratulated  us  on  having  enjoyed  this  Tnagnifique 
spectacle  just  before  leaving  the  country,  assuring  us 
that  so  grand  a  fire  had  not  been  seen  for  many  years ! 
Our  facetious  but  right-hearted  Hibernian  friend  Lieu- 
tenant G ^  who  had  passed  the  night  of  the  fire  in 

standing  sentinel  over  the  goods  and  chattels  carried 


664  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXXU. 

out  of  the  house  of  Mr.  R to  the  smaller  burying- 

ground,  said  it  was  a  wonderfol  thii^  to  think  of  what 
an  auto  da  fe  there  must  have  been  of  bugs  and  fleas  in 
those  two  thousand  wooden  houses  I 

In  former  times,  whenever  fires  became  very  firequ^it^ 
they  were  taken  as  signs  and  demonstrations  of  popular 
disaffection  or  discontent  In  1828,  when  I  saw  not  a 
few  of  them,  they  were  set  down  to  die  account  and 
malice  of  the  friends  of  the  janizaries  who  had  been 
rooted  out  in  1826.  Who  are  the  disaffected  now  ?  Or 
who  kindles  these  incessant  fires?  Making  every 
allowance  for  the  careless  habits  of  die  people  and  the 
combustible  materials  with  which  their  houses  are  built, 
it  is  yet  difficult  to  conceive  that  all  these  confiscations 
proceed  from  mere  accident  In  this  fire  at  Fera,  and 
in  others  about  which  I  made  diligent  inquiry,  the  fire 
broke  out  in  poor  Turkish  houses.  They  had  been 
increasing  in  frequency  in  proportion  with  the  augmenir 
ation  of  poverty  and  brooding  discontent  Within 
seventeen  days  there  were  three  more  fires.* 

On  Saturday,  the  24th  of  June,  being  at  the  village 
of  Bebek,  on  the  Bosphorus,  enjoying  the  hospitality  of 
some  of  the  American  missionaries  and  our  English 
friends  J.  R.  and  £•  G.,  we  saw  pass  at  an  early  hour 

> 

*  After  our  departure  loatters  did  not  mend.  The  iblk>wing  is  an  ex- 
tract from  the  letter  of  a  very  old  friend,  dated  Pera,  Constantinople, 
September  26th,  1848  : — "  Fires  have  been  the  order  of  the  day  sinoe  yon 
left,  llie  whole  of  Pera  is  now  a  heap  of  ruins,  afid  nothing  but  chimneys 
are  seen  standing  to  mark  small  allotments  of  ground.  The  last  fire 
finished  Pera  from  the  quarter  where  you  remember  itBtopped  in  June,  up 
to  our  house  down  Frank-street,  round  the  four  comers,  behind  the  Rus- 
sian Chancery,  on  to  the  small  burial-ground,  all  has  disappeared.  Our 
house  has  not  been  burnt  down,  although  it  took  fire  three  tunes,  and 
made  me  turn  out  with  bog  and  baggage." 


Chap.  XXXIl.        SIR  STRATFORD  CANNING.  665 

of  the  morning  the  British  war-steamer  "  Antelope," 
having  on  board  our  long  and  anxiously  expected  ambas- 
sador, who  landed  at  Therapia«  For  months  all  English 
afiairs  had  been  at  a  standstill,  and  many  serious  incon- 
veniences had  been  felt  by  such  as  had  afiairs  to  settle 
with  the  Turkish  government  Sir  Stratford  Canning — 
a  name  never  to  be  mentioned  by  me  without  respect — 
was  in  nowise  to  be  blamed  for  this.  He  had  not,  like 
Lord  Falmerston's  brother,  the  Honourable  William 
Temple,  at  Naples,  taken  a  long  leave«of  absence  and  kept 
himself  from  his  highly  paid  post  in  a  season  of  difficulty 
or  crisis.     He  had  left  Constantinople  in  the  summer  of 

1846,  with  the  intention  of  never  more  returning  to 
that  country.  He  had,  in  £ftct,  relinquished  his  em- 
bassy. But,  as  he  says  himself,  he  seems  to  be  bound 
by  a  destiny  to  Turkey.  This  was  the  fourth  time 
between  1814  and  1846  that  he  had  left  the  country 
with  die  intention  of  not  returning.  *  In  the  winter  of 

1847,  beset  by  llie  entreaties  of  the  friends  of  Beschid 
Pasha,  and  yielding  to  the  instances  of  Viscount  Pal- 
merston,  he  reluctantly  agreed  to  go  back  onee  more. 
He  was  told  that  he  alone  was  competent  to  the 
management  of  the  reforming  Turks,  and  that  if  he  did 
not  return,  Beschid  must  fall,  and  the  reform  be  blown 
to  the  winds.  I  know  his  reluctance,  as  well  as  some 
domestic  reasons,  which  rendered  this  new  appointment 
to  the  Ottoman  Forte  almost  an  act  of  cruelty.  Sir 
Stratford  was  entitled  to  a  better  embassy,  and  he  ought 
to  have  had  it  On  his  own  account  I  regret  that  he 
was  not  appointed  to  a  more  civilised  and  happier 
country ;  and  I  fear  that  tiiere  may  be  (if  there  have 
not  already  been)  good  reasons  for  regretting,  on  public 


'^-« 


666  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chaf.  XXXIL 

and  national  ground^  that  he  shoold  ever  have  been 
forced  back  to  Constantinople.  In  the  autumn  of 
1 847,  when  he  was  ready  to  take  his  departure  for  the 
East)  our  Minister  for  Foreign  Affitirs  found  other 
work  for  him ;  and,  in  a  series  of  harassing,  iU-timed, 
and  unpromising  missions,  much  misused  this  valuable 
public  servant  Sir  Stratford  arrived  at  Berne  just  in 
time  to  witness  the  triumj^  of  the  ultra-democratic  lac* 
tion  in  Switzerland,  and  to  dine  and  exchange  compli- 
ments di  obbligo  with  the  dems^ogues  who  had  made  a 
revolution  destructive  for  many  years  to  come  of  the 
repose  and  happiness  of  Switzerland.*     He  reached 

*  Sir  Stratford  has  been  singularly  unfortunate  in  his  efforts  to  promote 
toleration  and  religious  liberty.  In  Turkey  those  efforts  were  followed  by 
the  barbarous  persecution  of  the  poor  AlbanianB  of  Soopia.  In  Switserlaikd 
they  failed  of  effect.  When  we  were  passing  through  Lausanne,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1848,  the  dominant  and  intolerant  faction  w«re  seizing  quiet 
Protestant  ministers  in  the  streets  or  in  ihdr  housesy  and  hurrying  them 
off  into  exile.  Persecution  was  raging  all  through  the  Pays  de  Yand.  At 
Geneva,  at  Neuchfitel,  matters  were  not  better.  It  is  a  clergyman  of  the 
Churdi  of  England  that  has  written  what  follows  :— 

«  The  great  ends  proposed  by  the  late  campaign,  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jesuits  and  the  subversion  of  the  Sonderbund-govenmients,  were,  to  give 
peace  to  the  country,  and  to  extend  and  fix  the  principles  of  liberty  on  a 
sound  and  firm  basis.  Have  these  ends  been  promoted,  even  to  a  certain 
measure  ?  Are  the  cantons  generally  enjoying  a  state  of  peace  and  tran- 
quillity; and  have  the  interests  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  really 
advanced  ? — The  daily  occurrences  supply  a  painful  and  negative  answer 
to  these  questions.  As  yet  there  are  no  indications  of  that  spirit  of  mode- 
ration, that  decree  of  amnesty,  and  those  measures  of  conciliation  which 
have  been  promised  to  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  to  be  acted  upon.  On  the 
contrary,  there  appears  a  growing  disposition  to  rule  by  the  law  of  perse* 
cution.  Thus,  the  liberty  of  the  press — one  of  the  greatest  privileges  and 
marks  of  a  free  coimtry  and  a  free  people--can  scarcely  be  said  to  be 
tolerated  any  more  in  the  country ;  when  every  free  expression  of  opinion 
differing  from  that  of  the  ruling  party  is  immediately  crushed  and  perse- 
cuted. In  the  Canton  de  Yand  religious  liberty  has  been  entirely  put 
down.  In  that  state  a  legislative  measure  has  lately  been  adopted,  by  a 
majority  of  64  to  38  votes,  for  the  complete  subversion  of  all  religiouB 
worship  not  in  connexion  with  the  National  Church.    The  avowed  object 


cbap.  xxxn.     sm  btbatiobd  CAJSumsot.  667 

Vienna  when  Count  Fiquelmont,  shrining  from  blood- 
shed and  dvil  war,  had  yielded  to  the  mad  democrats, 
professors  and  students  of  that  capital,  and  when,  to 
most  men,  the  ancient  House  of  Austria  seemed  really 
threatened  with  dissolution.  His  arrival  in  other  cities 
of  Germany  took  place  at  equally  disastrous  junctures ; 
and  he  had  to  witness,  and  at  times  to  congratulate, 
principles  and  men  whose  course  he  considered  as  de- 
structiye  of  society,  and  to  watch  the  march  of  revolu- 
tionism,  without  the  power  of  doing  anything  to  check 
its  headlong  speed.  This  had  occupied  him  many 
months ;  and  when  all  this  was  over,  he  had  to  call  at 
Athens  on  his  way  to  Constantinople,  and  there  witness 
another  scene  oJP  intrigue,  faction,  confusion,  and  almost 
anarchy,  beings  in  the  main,  the  fruits  of  that  constitu- 
tion, for  which  the  country  was  unfit,  that  had  been 
forced  upon  King  Otho  by  a  military  revolt  and  Eng- 
lish diplomacy.  Sir  Stratford  has  not  a  little  of  the 
excitability  and  poetical  temperament  of  his  cousin, 
Mr.  George  Canning;  but  a  more  phlegmatic  man 
might  have  been  reasonably  expected  to  be  disturbed 
by  such  eccentric  missions  and  such  exhibitions  of  dis- 
order and  violence.  I  saw  him  on  Sunday  the  25th  of 
June,  the  day  after  his  arrival,  and  again  on  the  fol- 
lowing  morning.  He  was  too  much  excited  to  pay  any 
great  attention  to  the  reports  I  had  to  make  him.  He 
thought  that  the  greater  part  of  the  empire  was  in  a 

of  thifl  measure  is  to  extiiiguish  all  Protestant  seets,  who  are  now  as  mtiGh 
the  object  of  persecution  as  the  Jesuits  were  afore.  A  strange  spectacle  is 
thus  presented  to  the  civilized  world  by  the  purest  Protestant  democrapy 
in  Europe— 4hat  of  puttmg  in  force  a  law  against  Protestants  little  less 
intolerant  than  the  rovocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  1 "— *  Note-Book  of 
the  late  Civil  War  in  Switzerland,  by  the  Bev.  M.  J.  Mayers,  M.A., 
Vicar  of  TAngham  Episcopi,  Norfolk.*    London,  1848. 


668  TUBKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXXH. 

deplorable  situa^on ;  he  could  not  see  how  the  Grovem- 
ment  was  to  get  through  its  financial  difficulties ;  but, 
weak  or  strong,  rich  or  poor,  the  integrity  of  the  empire 
must  be  maintained ;  and,  in  alliance  with  France,  we 
must  support  Turkey  against  her  encroaching  neigh- 
bour, whose  occupation  (jointly  unth  the  Turks)  of 
the  Danubian  Principalities  was  an  alarming  incident. 
When  that  which  (by  men  who  respect  him  less  than  I 
do)  is  called  his  Busso- phobia  obtained  the  mastery 
over  him,  there  was  nothing  to  say  to  Sir  Stratford,  and 
nothing  to  do  but  to  sit  still  and  listen  with  such 
patience  as  one  could  command.  Dreading,  as  I  did, 
the  effects  of  an  alliance  with  France  re-revolutionized 
against  Bussia  and  our  old  ally  Aiistria,  and  feeling  as  I 
did  that  before  we  pledged  ourselves  to  support  Turkey 
we  ought  to  be  fully  aware  of  the  condition  and  nature 
of  what  we  were  to  support,  and  accurately  informed  as 
to  the  faculty  of  Turkey  to  help  herself,  and  as  to  the 
amount  of  the  assistance  and  sacrifices  she  would  require 
from  us,  I  endeavoured  to  turn  the  conversation  into 
those  channels.  Sir  Stratford  had  not  seen  the  country 
with  his  own  eyes :  except  one  excursion  to  Brusa,  he 
had  seen  little  but  the  Bosphonis  and  the  country  which 
lies  between  Therapia  and  Constantinople,  and  betwe^i 
the  capital  and  the  village  of  San  Stefano :  he  had  been 
absent  two  years,  during  which  he  had  been  indulging 
in  the  hope  that  both  the  Bayah  and  Mussulman  popu- 
lations had  been  advancing  under  the  rule  of  Beschid 
Pasha  and  the  Tanzimaut  or  refomi  system.  From 
Mr.  Layard,  and  other  competent  English  travellers, 
he  had  received  faithful  and  startling  reports  of  the 
horrible  condition  of  the  remoter  Asiatic  provinces; 


Chap.  XXXH.        SIR  STRATFORD  CANNING.  669 

but  these  had  been  presented  a  long-time  ago — or  a 
long  time  witih  respect  to  a  country  where  the  progress 
of  ruin  and  desolation  is  so  rapid.  I  wished  to  tell 
him  of  the  things  I  had  seen  in  the  two  near  and  best 
Pashaliks  of  the  Empire;  of  the  observations  I  had 
made  but  as  yesterday,  and  of  certain  inrestigations 
which  nobody  before  me  had  made  at  all.  But  Sir 
Stratford^  though  assenting  to  my  propositions^  was  far 
too  much  excited  to  listen  to  details ;  and  when,  with 
reference  to  the  astounding  revolutions  of  Christendom, 
he  began  to  talk  of  the  Fate  or  Destiny  of  the  Greek 
tragedians,  I  thought  it  time  to  take  my  leave. 

I  saw  him  for  the  third  and  last  time  at  Therapia  on 
the  4th  of  July,  when  I  did  not  find  that  his  excitement 
had  at  all  abated.  I  laid  before  him  the  case  of  Sotiri 
Macri,  at  Selyvria,  in  which  he  seemed  to  say  he  could 
do  nothing ;  I  told  him  the  story  of  the  Sultan's  Model 
Farm ;  I  related  the  sad,  demoralized  condition  of  the 
English  colony  at  Macri-keui,  which  certainly  called  for 
some  attention ;  and  I  touched  lightly  upon  some  other 
subjects  in  which  the  welfare  of  Englishmen:  and  the 
credit  of  Beschid  Pasha's  government  were  deeply  con- 
cerned. Sir  Stratford  still  clung  to  the  idea  that 
Beschid,  if  not  a  paragon  of  honesty,  was  the  honestest 
minister  to  be  found  in  Turkey.  He  again  seemed  to 
believe  that  Turkey  was  really  in  the  path  of  regene- 
ration, and  that  the  discontents  of  the  Bayah  population 
were  not  quite  so  universal  or  so  violent  as  they  had 
been  represented.  His  head  was  still  full  of  the  Tzar 
Nicholas  and  the  Bussian  conquests,  and  he  was  in  a 
fliffry  of  business  and  correspondence.  On  taking 
leave  he  said,  '^Well,  you  will  go  home  and  tell  the 


V 


670  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTINY.       Chap.  XXXII. 

truth."  I  assured  him  ^t,  come  what  would  of  it,  I 
should  do  so.  I  have  now  done  it  Lihenwi  animam 
meam. 

I  have  shown  no  stint  or  coolness  in  the  praises  I 
have  bestowed  on  this  distinguished  diplomatist,  and  to 
which  he  is  fairly,  and  by  universal  consent,  entitled* 
But  my  respect  for  Sir  Stratford — a  respect  founded 
on  a  knowledge  of  his  character,  his  many  eminent, 
generous  qualities,  his  intolerance  of  cruelty,  injustice, 
and  oppression ;  his  straightforwardness,  his  feeling  and 
charitable  disposition ;  his  love  of  literature,  arts,  and 
antiquities,  with  his  constant  readiness  to  promote  them 
— neither  can  nor  ought  to  render  me  insen^ble  to  the 
national  mischiefi  which  may  result  from  his  present 
mission.  High  minded  as  he  is,  he  cannot  forget  cer- 
tain passages  in  his  antecedent  career.  The  &ctB, 
thou^  seldom  alluded  to  now-a-days,  were  of  public 
and  of  European  notoriety,  and  must  be  perfectly  well 
remembered  by  those  who  pay  any  attention  to  diplo- 
matic history.  In  1832  Sir  Stratford  Canning  was 
appointed  to  represent  His  Majesty  William  lY.  at  die 
Court  of  St.  Fetersburgh.  His  credentials  were  made 
out  and  were  in  his  portfolio,  his  appointment  was  com- 
municated with  the  usual  forms  and  etiquette  to  the 
Emperor  Nicholas,  and  that  sovereign  refused  to  re- 
ceive him  as  ambassador.  I  can  remember  only  one 
precedent  of  a  similar  refusal  of  a  British  ambassador 
or  minister  by  a  friendly  power.  The  Tzar's  conduct 
excited  much  astonishment  and  animadversion,  but  he 
resolutely  maintained  his  determination ;  Sir  Stratford 
was  obliged  to  let  his  credentials  sleep  in  his  portfolio, 
and  after  a  time — ^Russia  being  too  formidable  to  be 


Chap.  XXXn.       SIR  STRATFORD  CANNING.  671 

bullied — the  Whig  government  appointed  another  am- 
bassador to  St  Fetersbui^h.  To  Sir  Stratford  the 
mortiBcation  was  in  every  way  great:  the  road  to  di- 
plomatic promotion  and  to  the  embassy  at  Paris  lay 
through  St  Fetersburgh,  and  by  the  fiat  of  the  Tzar 
that  road  was  stopped  to  him.  Surely  these  reminis- 
cences are  not  calculated  to  qualify  a  diplomatist  for 
difficult  or  embarrassing  or  temper-trying  negotiations  in 
which  Russia  is  a  principal  party. 

The  Turks  who  had  been  so  dismayed  at  tine  first 
explosions  of  the  revolutionary  volcanos  in  Christen- 
dom, had  been  gradually  changing  their  tone  and  de** 
meanour,  and  there  was  a  further  and  very  noticeable 
change  after  the  arrival  of  Sir  Stratford.  Their  igno- 
rance and  presumption  were  wrought  upon  by  Count 
,  and  other  homeless,  desperate,  intriguing,  restless 
Poles,  who  were  incessantly  repeating  that  it  was  all  up 
with  Austria,  that  Poland  would  rise  once  more,  and 
that  Bussia  herself  would  be  revolutionized.  A  proteg^ 
of  Beschid  Pasha  confidently  assured  me  that  reformed 
Turkey  must  gain  independence,  power,  and  greatness ; 
that  universal  liberty  and  happiness  were  to  come  out 
pure  and  bright  from  the  revolutionary*  cauldron ;  that 
civilization  had  taken  a  fresh  start,  or  had  had  a  new 
birth  at  Paris  in  the  month  of  February,  and  that  we 
should  soon  have  a  new  and  a  blessed  world.  The 
Turks  of  this  school  rejoiced  at  the  news  of  Charles 
Albert  having  crossed  the  Mincio  with  an  army  of 
40,000  men,  and  would  not  listen  to  any  doubt  as  to 
his  final  success ;  they  chuckled  at  every  disaster  which 
befell  the  Austrians,  and  at  the  first  blush  of  the 
troubles  in  Hungary  and  Transylvania  some  of  them 


'.}    ^ 


4 

4 


672  TURKEY  AOT)  ITS  DESTINY.        C^ap.  XXXn. 

talked  of  joining  the  Magyars,  of  regaining  through  their 
means  all  the  territories  they  had  lost  to  the  House  of 
Hapsburgh,  and  of  regaining  in  Hungary  the  ascend- 
ancy they  had  enjoyed  in  the  days  of  Suleiuian  the 
Magnificent  It  was  now  vain  to  tell  these  men  tiuit 
the  dismemberment  or  weakening  of  the  Austrian  em- 
pire would  leave  Turkey  open  to  Russia,  or  that,  at 
least,  for  the  last  half  century  Austria  had  been  the 
best  bulwark  of  the  Ottoman  dominions,  and  one  of  the 
very  best  friends  of  the  Turkish  dynasty.  The  majo- 
rity of  the  Turks,  however,  seemed  still  to  be  strongly 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  their  only  chance  of  safety 
consisted  in  their  remaining  perfectly  quiet 

On  Monday,  the  29th  of  May,  General  Aupidc,  as 
minister  of  the  French  Republic,  arrived  in  the  Golden 
Horn  in  a  French  Government  steamer ;  but  he  did  not 
land,  as  the  Turks  would  not  salute  his  flag  or  formally 
receive  him.  This,  we  were  told,  wis  all  owing  to 
Baron  Titofl^  the  Bussian  ambassador.  The  Frank 
patriots  of  Pera  and  Galata  (a  rabble  of  all  nations) 
talked  of  mobbing  the  Baron^s  house,  but  thought  better 
of  it  Some  said  that  General  Aupick,  indignant  at 
the  insult  ofFerdd  to  the  Grande  R^publique,  would 
take  his  departure,  and  would  soon  reappear  with  a 
French  fleet  to  bombard  StambouL  Others  said  that 
Sarim  Pasha,  late  I'inance  Minister,  and  now. for  a  few 
weeks  Grand  Yizier,  must  have  gone  stark,  staring 
mad,  or  have  taken  some  enormous  bribe  from  Russia. 
On  the  following  day,  somewhat  to  my  astonishment, 
the  salute  and  formal  reception  being  still  withheld, 
General  Aupick  landed,  delivered  an  address  to  tlie 
French  subjects^  and  then  went  quietly  up  the  Bos- 


■  miiaii^"     wmimnfnyi^iyv'-'^' 


Chap.  XXXII.  POLITIOAL  SPECULATIONS.  673 

phonis  to  the  French  palace  at  Therapia,  where  he  re- 
mained most  quietly,  and  without  showing  his  flag, 
until  the  arrival  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning.  On  the 
erening  after  our  ambassador's  landing  at  Therapia, 
we  learned  that  General  Aupiok  was  to  be  received 
with  all  state  and  etiquette,  and  that  his  Republic  was 
to  be  formally  recognized  by  the  Porte.  A  few  days 
after  this,  on  descending  the  Bosphorus  from  Buyuk- 
dere,  we  saw  the  flag  of  the  French  Bepublic  flying 
close  to  the  British  flag,  the  houses  of  General  Aupick 
and  Sir  Stratford  being  on  the  same  quay  at  Therapia, 
and  only  a  few  hundred  feet  from  each  other ;  and  we 
were  told  that  the  General  had  had  his  audience  of  the 
Forte,  and  was  maintaining  the  most  amicable  and 
closest  relations  with  Sir  Stratford.  That  evening  at 
Pera  a  Frenchman  assured  us  that  England  had  put 
herself  in  die  wake  of  France,  and  could  not  do  other- 
wise. The  outcry  against  Austria  and  Russia  now 
became  louder  than  ever;  Beschid  Pasha's  men  re- 
sumed their  strut  and  confidence,  and  even  Turks  of 
a  difierent  school  now  opined  that  there  was  not  very 
much  to  fear  from  a  war  with  Russia  and  Austria,  if 
the  French  and  English-  would  only  fight  their  battles 
for  them,  and  supply  them  with  armies,  fleets,  arms, 
ammunition,  and  the  grand  sine  qud  non^  money. 

And,  in  efiFect,  if  a  war  is  to  be  provoked,  the  Turks 
will  require  all  these  things,  and  a  great  many  more. 

Would  France,  or  could  she — in  the  present  embar- 
rassed state  of  her  finances— undertake  with  England 
to  bear  her  fair  portion  of  these  enormous  charges? 
Would  any  House  of  Commons  vote  even  our  share  ? 
Is  our  national  prosperity  so  great  at  the  close  of  this 

VOL.  II.  2   X 


••^ 


674      ,  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTDHT.        Chap.  XXXH. 

year,  1849,  that  we  can  calmly  contemplate  incurring 
in  1850  enormous  expenses  and  the  risk  of  universal 
war  for  the  sake  of  an  expiring  un-Christian  people,  or 
the  maintenance  of  adecrepid,  demoralized,  abominahle 
government  ?  "  Puzza  al  naso  cC  ognuno  questo  bar- 
haro  domimo.^* 

In  rushing  into  a  war  against  all  our  old  allies,  can 
we  rely  upon  our  single  new  ally,  France  ?  Or  will 
France  enter  upon  such  a  war  with  faith  and  full  con- 
fidence in  England?  The  notion  that  Bussia  is  the 
natural  ally  of  France  did  not  originate  with  M.  Lamar- 
tine  and  the  February  Revolution ;  it  dates  many  years 
back,  and  it  is  not  confined  to  the  romancing  historiaa 
and  poetical  politician  and  his  school.  Other  loud- 
tongued  and  stirring  Frenchmen  entertain  at  this 
moment,  as  a  capital  point  of  political  faith,  that 
France  has  more  to  gain  from  a  close  alliance  with  the 
great  power  of  the  North  than  from  any  other  league 
and  combination;  that  by  such  an  alliance  Austria, 
Prussia,  and  all  the  minor  powers  of  the  European 
Continent  would  be  crushed,  and  there  would  remain 
only  two  nations  in  Europe,  France  and  Kussia,  Eng- 
land being  "  cast  off  as  a  mere  satellite  in  the  ocean  I "  f 
By  the  scheme  of  this  alliance  Bussia  is  or  was  to  have 
Constantinople,  the  Black  Sea,  the  Fropontis,  the  Dar- 
danelles, and  the  Adriatic;  and  the  French  to  hold 
Spain,  Italy,  Belgium,  the  Bhine,  and  nearly  all  Ger- 


^  Macbiavelli. 

t  The  last  are  Lamartine's  own  words. 

"  The  Bussian  alliance,"  says  this  poet,  "  is  the  cry  of  natnre  ;  it  is  tho 
revelation  of  geography ;  it  is  the  alliance  of  war,  for  the  eventualities  of 
tho  future,  to  the  two  great  iBOGS.^-^Histoire  de  la  JRivolutum  de  1848. 


■^'O^jjKa. 


'  .'^TWPi       n    r. I 


Chap.  XXXII.     FRENCH  JEALOUSY  OF  ENGLAND.  675 

many.  In  a  country  where  revolution  is  not  yet  over, 
and  absolutely  nothing  fixed,  a  sudden  change  may 
happen  likely  to  bring  into  temporary  power  men  quite 
capable  of  attempting  to  realize  this  gigantic,  remorse- 
less, and  perhaps  mad  scheme.  The  condition  of 
France  alone  is  an  obstacle  and  a  warning  against  any 
alliance  with  her,  and  ought  to  be  decisive  of  the  ques- 
tion. On  the  other  side,  the  French  are  very  generally 
disposed  to  regard  with  distrust  and  suspicion  our  views 
and  objects :  many  of  their  journalists  and  other  writers 
are  affirming  at  this  moment  that  we  are  only  looking 
to  our  own  commercial  interests  and  territorial  aggran* 
dizement ;  that  we  have  an  eye  on  Egypt  as  a  necessary 
link  in  the  chain  which  connects  us  with  India ;  that  we 
are  hungering  after  Candia  and  Cyprus,  and  all  the  rich 
and  fertile  islands  of  the  Archipelago ;  that  the  heat  and 
unpetuosity  of  Sir  Stratford  Canning  against  Bussia 
have  carried  General  Aupick  much  farther  than  he 
ever  ought  to  have  gone ;  and  that,  finally,  if^  for  the 
sake  of  Turkey  and  the  renegade  Bem,  England  involves 
France  in  a  war,  she  will  be  sure  to  leave  her  in  the 
lurch,  and  make  most  advantageous  terms  for  herself 
with  Bussia. 

The  French  fleet  has  been  sent  towards  the  Darda- 
nelles only  to  watch  the  fleet  of  Sir  William  Parker. 
If  our  fleet  had  not  gone  to  the  Straits,  most  assuredly 
the  French  would  never  have  moved  in  that  direction ; 
and  while  we  have  been  blustering  within  that  passage, 
which  is  closed  by  treaties,  to  which  we  are  a  party,  to 
all  the  fleets  of  the  world,  the  French,  with  far  more 
decorum  and  dignity,  have  kept  themselves  at  a  distance 
at  Vourla,  in  the  gulf  of  Smyrna.     And  why  all  this 

2x2 


I 

I 


676  TURKBT  AND  ITS  DESTINY.        Chap.  XXXIT. 

blustering  ?  In  the  bay  of  Naples,  where  terror  was  to 
be  struck  into  the  hearts  of  a  king  and  a  queen,  a  royal 
family,  and  all  who  were  friends  to  order  and  foes  to 
anarchy,  Sir  William  Parker  had,  in  1848,  an  open  field 
and  good  practice  in  bullying ;  but  who  is  to  be  bullied 
now  in  the  Dardanelles?  At  the  season  in  which 
our  fleet  repaired  thither,  no  invasion  could  be  at- 
tempted or  any  movement  made  by  Russia  upon 
Turkey.  The  horrible  tracks  of  the  country  were  all 
impassable,  the  snow  lay  deep  on  Mount  Hsmus,  the* 
winter  tempests  of  the  Euxine  were  commencing,  and 
soon  the  embouchures  of  rivers  and  the  Russian  ports 
on  that  sea  would  be  blocked  up  by  thick-ribbed  ice  ; 
which  would  not  dissolve  until  the  end  of  March. 

I  know  that  Russia  has  received  insults  difficult  to 
be  borne  by  a  mighty  power  when  proceeding  from  so 
very  weak,  un-Christian,  and  wretched  a  country  as 
Turkey ;  I  am  aware  of  the  almost  irresistible  tempta- 
tion which  has  been  offered  to  the  Emperor  Nicholas 
for  many  years — three-fourths  of  the  population  of 
European  Turkey  (the  Christians)  praying  for  his 
coming,  and  the  other  fourth  (the  Turks)  having  no 
means  or  heart  to  withstand  him — but  I  am  not  aware 
that  the  Tzar  contemplates  any  invasion ;  I  only  know 
of  a  certainty  that  he  cannot  invade  now  or  for  months 
to  come.  If  in  this  question  of  extradition  he  were 
only  seeking  grounds  and  pretexts  for  a  war,  he  would 
have  remained  perfectly  quiet  until  the  month  of  May, 
1850,  when  he  could  have  followed  up  his  menaces 
with  immediate  action,  and  have  been  across  the  Bal- 
kan and  under  the  crumbling  walls  of  Constantinople 
in  a  few  weeks.     The  course  pursued  by  the  Emperor 


.^-...■^ 


Chap.  XXXIl.     COITGBESS  OF  ALL  CHRISTENDOM.  677 

should  really  seem  to  indicate  that  he  contemplated  no 
invasion  or  hostility  whatsoever.  But  this  is  to  be  con* 
sidered — the  force  which  fled  after  the  rout  of  Arad 
with  Bern  and  £ossuth  was  so  desperate  and  so  nu- 
merous, that  it  could  not  safely  be  left  on  the  frontiers 
of  a  country  which  they  had  recently  made  the  scene 
of  a  most  destructive  and  remorseless  civil  war ;  and  for 
the  sake  of  Hungary  and  his  ally  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
the  Tzar  must  have  called  for  the  removal  of  those  fire- 
brands at  the  time  he  did,  even  though  his  demands  might 
agitate  Europe  and  provoke  and  put  on  their  guard  the 
powers  disposed  to  protect  the  Sultan,  thus  depriving 
Russia  of  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  an  unex- 
pected coup-de-main.  The  Tzar  may  yet  contemplate 
an  invasion  of  this  expiring  empire ;  I  do  not  know 
that  he  does,  nor  do  I  believe  that  others  in  England 
have  more  knowledge  on  this  point  than  I  have ;  I 
only  know  that  the  temptation  is  irresistible,  and  the 
long  forbearance  shown  by  Nicholas  a  marvellous  thing 
in  history. 

No  one  who  looks  forward  to  the  great  event,  tjie 
breaking  up  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  as  a  blessing  to 
humanity  and  civilization,  contemplates  for  one  moment 
that  Bussia  is  to  possess  all  those  unpeopled,  but  vast, 
productive,  rich,  and  beautiful  regions.  The  distribu- 
tion must  and  toiU^  at  some  not  distant  day,  be  left  to 
the  decision  of  some  Congress  of  all  Christendom.  If 
such  a  Congress  could  be  settled  without  being  preceded 
by  the  horrors  of  a  warfare  among  the  Christian  powers, 
the  advantage  would  be  unalloyed  and  the  blessing  com- 
plete. Wage  war  as  you  will,  it  must  come  to  this  at 
last — a  Congress,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Turks,  as  a 


678  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DESTmY.        Chap.  XXXH. 

governing  power,  from  Europe  and  the  greater  part  of 
Asia  Minor.  If  the  world  is  now  so  unsettled,  and  if  we 
all  aim  at  a  settlement,  and  one  which  shall  he  endur- 
ing, we  must  come  to  a  decision  on  the  Turkish  ques- 
tion notJD.  If  it  is  left  undecided,  our  settlement  will  be 
most  incomplete,  Turkey  will  be  a  standing  castis  beUi, 
exposing  every  year  the  peace  of  Christendom  to  a  sud- 
den interruption.* 

The  Turks  themselves  seem  generally  to  be  convinced 
that  their  final  hour  is  approaching — "  We  are  no  longer 
Mussulmans — the  Mussulman  sabre  is  broken — the  Os- 
manlees  will  be  driven  out  of  Europe  by  the  ghiaours, 
and  driven  through  Asia  to  the  regions  from  which 
they  first  sprung.  It  is  kismet!  We  cannot  resist 
Destiny  1"  I  heard  words  to  this  effect  from  many 
Turks,  as  well  in  Asia  as  in  Europe ;  and  the  like  were 
heard  by  Bishop  Southgate  in  many  and  remote  parts 
of  the  Empire.  Some  consoled  themselves  with  the 
dream  of  a  very  strange  millennium: — after  a  long 
series  of  years,  an  entire  abasement  of  the  Mussulman 
creed  and  of  Mussulman  peoples,  Jesus  the  Great  Pro- 
phet would  return  to  earth,  gather  up  the  scattered 
fragments  of  the  believers  of  Mahomet,  reanimate  their 
faith  and  their  ancient  valour,  and  give  them,  until  the 
world's  end,  dominion  over  all  the  earth;  with  one 
religion,  and  one  unbroken,  undisturbed  peace  and  hap- 
piness. 

This  belief  was  startling.    I  repeatedly  asked  whether 

*  The  passagee  in  the  text  were  written  iu  the  month  of  NoTemher, 
1849.  I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  either  to  alt-er  them  or  to  add  to 
them.  Whatever  may  become  of  Bern  the  renegade  and  his  associates 
signifies  nothing  to  my  arguments.    That  qn&rrel  is  not  yet  settled. 


\ 


Chap.  XXXII.    OTTOMAN  SUBJECTS  RIPE  FOR  REVOLT.      679 

it  was  not  the  return  of  Mahomet  that  they  looked  for  ? 
but  I  was  as  constantly  told  that  it  was  not  Mahomet, 
but  Jesus — the  Jesus  worshipped  by  the  Christians — 
whom  they  expected  in  the  fulness  of  time  to  complete 
the  great  scheme  which  Mahomet  had  only  begun. 

I  can  conceive  and  hope  that,  at  no  great  distance 
of  time,  some  Christian  missionary,  perhaps  some  gifted 
youth  now  in  training  in  the  Church  of  Englanu  Mis- 
sionary College  of  St  Augustine's,  n^ar  to  the  restored 
walls  of  which  I  write  these  lines,  may  avail  himself 
of  this  remarkable  belief  and  turn  it  to  the  spiritual 
advantage  of  those  who  entertain  it.  The  Turkish 
government  once  broken  up,  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
conversion  of  the  poor  Turks  to  Christianity  would  be 
a  work  of  very  great  difficulty. 

At  the  close  of  a  work  which  may  have  already  been 
found  too  long,  I  can  indulge  in  no  more  observations 
or  speculations.  I  can  do  little  more  than  request 
serious  attention  to  the  facts  I  have  collected  as  illus- 
trative of  the  condition  of  the  army,  the  navy,  the 
government,  and  the  people,  or  peoples  at  large,  and  to 
conjure  those  who  can  influence  national  parliaments 
and  executive  councils  to  reflect  what  they  do  before 
they  draw  the  sword  for  a  decreasing,  perishing  people 
like  the  Turks,  who  are  themselves  convinced  that 
nothing  can  now  save  them.  In  Europe  they  are  a 
minority,  disaffected  towards  the  Government,  and 
divided  among  themselves :  lurking  discontent  or  open 
insurrection  is  nearly  everywhere  a-foot.  Take  the 
map  of  the  Empire.  The  fierce  Albanians  are  ready 
for  fresh  revolt; 'the  equally  fierce  Bosniaks  are  actu- 
ally in  revolt  at  this  moment ;  the  dogged  Bulgariansi 


\ 


680  TURKEY  AND  ITS  DE8TINT.       Chap.  XXXH. 

brooding  over  the  Turkish  atrocities  of  1841,  are  ready 
or  eager  for  another  insurrection ;  the  Greek  Rayahs, 
who  so  far  outnumber  them  in  Europe,  are  burning 
with  an  unquenchable  hatred  of  the  Osmanlees;  a 
desultory  civil  war  rages  in  Mount  Lebanon ;  the  whole 
of  Syria  is  notoriously  disaffected ;  there  is,  or  lately 
has  been,  another  war  in  the  island  of  Samos,  only  a 
short  distance  from  Smyrna,  the  first  city  of  the  Asiatic 
dominions;  the  Kurds»  who  may  be  called  the  only 
warUke  people  inhabiting  that  part  of  the  Empire,  can 
neither  be  governed  by  force  nor  reconciled  by  gentle 
measures,  but  are  turbulent,  lawless,  and  looking  for 
another  Bedr-£han-Bey  and  a  fresh  struggle  to  secure 
their  independence  ;  and  then — the  most  decisive,  most 
fatal  symptom  of  all  I — from  one  end  of  the  inunense 
Empire  to  the  other,  all  heart  has  been  taken  out  of  the 
dwindling,  fastly  disappearing,  Turkish  population,  while 
many  of  that  race  lying  near  one  of  the  Asiatic  fron- 
tiers of  Russia  have  long  been  publicly  proclaiming 
that  they  will  welcome  the  Russians  and  return  to 
Christianity,  the  religion  of  their  forefathers,  so  soon  as 
the  Russians  come. 

On  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  July  we  gladly  took 
our  last  leave  of  Pera  and  Constantinople. 

On  the  morning,  of  the  5th  we  were  steaming  down 
the  beautiful  Propontis,  and  fast  approaching  the  Hel- 
lespont Though  I  trust  I  have  not  lost  my  keen  relish 
of  them,  I  had  not  quitted  my  home  and  come  to  Turkey 
for  beautifiil  and  classical  scenes.  Any  reasonable 
thinking  man,  drawing  near  to  his  fiftieth  year,  re* 
quires  something  more  than  scenery,  however  fair  and 
glorious  it  may  be.    Of  that  we  had  had  a  rich  feast ; 


!■      r    !■_ 


Chap.  XXXII.      AN  EMPIRE  IN  DISSOLUTION. 


681 


but  what  else  had  been  offered  to  us,  but  spectacles  of 
misery,  oppression,  monstrous  folly,  and  revolting  crime? 
What  had  we  seen  but  an  empire  in  dissolution  ? 

We  reached  Smyrna  on  the  6th  of  July,  at  3  p.m^ 
and  at  once  transferred  ourselves  to  the  pleasant,  right 
comfortable,  little  villa  of  my  dear  old  friend  Langdon, 
at  Boudja.  We  spent  four  days  between  that  village 
and  the  town  of  Smyrna,  where  I  followed  up  a  few 
inquiries  into  the  state  of  agriculture  and  other  matters, 
and  where  we  were  hospitably  entertained  by  that  true* 
hearted  English  merchant  R . 

On  Monday  evening  the  10th  of  July,  1848,  we  re- 
embarked,  and  took  our  final  leave  of  the  territories  of 
Sultan  Abdul  Medjid. 


THE  END, 


VOL.  n. 


2v 


i 


\ 


t 

f 


' 


PaillTKD  BT  W.  CLOWKS  AND  BOKS,  ITAHrOSD  •»£«'.